Looking for a fun first car

I've only rented cars and am looking to buy used, what is a good "first car" that is also fun to drive? Will be a daily driver, and I live with bad winter roads so I need front or all wheel drive and 19+ mpg city. My price range is under 10k. I've looked at pretty much every taurus SHO in the area, and none have responded to my dms, so is there any other sort of sleeper build cars that are good daily drivers?