Car Quandry or My Kingdom for a Horse

It's finally happening, the 99 Hyundai has contracted a death rattle. Not to mention the heat doesn't come on anymore, not even when you hit a bump in the road. It's been a blessing really. The chariot was the first car I had ever bought off a lot, from a dealer and had less than 90,000 miles on it. Bells and whistles, leather interior, the sport model. Now he has 182, 000 miles and just a few weeks ago, the alternator died leaving me in the middle of a very busy 2 lane, after dark, without enough current to turn the hazards on(did I mention the car is Black). Bald tires, dents, cracked windshield. . . Dorothy surrenders.
Hybrids, have batteries which are terribly toxic not to mention non-biodegradable, which need to be replaced every 5 years? I don't feel warm and fuzzy about them yet. I think I like the Toyota Matrix, but my son who works parking cars for a hotel tells me they are not impressive. He's a Honda guy; forget I mention him.

I also am attracted to the Dodge Caliber, AWD. Don't know anything about it though.

A few of you have recently experienced the new car dilemma, as I recall, I am wondering if you also feel the futility of this situation. I mean, whatever I buy today, in the very new future, will probably become obsolete. This is the transitional phase. Numerous Hybrids are out now, all in beginning stages of development (NPR this morning compared them to early cell phones, the size of a brick). Tales of hydrogen fuel cells, switch-grass and plankton fuels, and of course the bio-diesel mass production all make me feel like buying a horse instead.
Imagine that, me on a great Clydesdale, riding into town to buy a cuppa Joe.
OK enough of that, what car do you like?