Granted, safety is always balanced against practicality.
Perhaps a Civic's greatest safety "feature" for a young driver is its complete lack of power. I seem to recall not being the most prudent driver myself when I was a teenager
As much as I hated it, it's probably just as well that my first car was a 94 HP Mercury Topaz.
70's cars don't always suck, not even the modified ones. My cousin's first car was a '78 Chevy Nova that was fixed up so that it could break into the 13's in the 1/4 (13.8 or so was his best). It served him well for about two years as a daily driver, from something like a $3.5K purchase. Gas costs an awful lot though at 12 MPG when you're buying pemium but for the cost of the car...he had cash left over.
Yeah, yeah, I had a Topaz and he had a Nova. All I can say is now the tables are turned since I have the Roadmaster while he drives a gutless '01 Cougar (he hangs his head in shame whenever he talks about it, especially since he sold his Camaro RS for it).
Anyway, the author of the thread seems to have some idea of what he wants--he specifically mentioned Honda, Toyota and Ford.
Of the three, I'd recommend Ford.
J_A_B