Quote: "Unfortunately, she's unable to drive my car due to 5spd. "
Learn. If you can drive stick, spend a few hours (or days, lol) teaching her. It will be a 'bonding' experience for you, and will save you money in the long run.
Quote: "She might have small scratches and nicks too while learning so it won't hurt as much afterwards..."
Really? That's scary. If she is hitting things she shouldn't have a license. No offense but that's the whole point of driver's education - making sure you DON'T hit things. 
We had a 1996 Toyota Camry LE 4-cylinder for a few years. It was in the family previously, and while it was the furthest thing from 'entertaining' to drive it never once had a mechanical issue or maintenance cost other than changing the oil. It was decent on gas, comfortable on the highway, safe and sturdy feeling. We sold ours for just over $2K, I'm sure you can find one in decent shape for under $4K.
Unless you are absolutely adamant, ABS isn't a reason NOT to buy a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. Both of those cars are readily available within your budget and offer some of the lowest operation costs with cheap used or rebuilt parts available at any wrecking yard. Yes ABS is a great safety invention but by no means is it the only thing you have to be concerned about on a $4K used car.
The 5spd issue will be addressed when she becomes more comfortable driving. Both of us agreed that she needs to concentrate on the road first and have less worry about drivetrain control. She usually pick on me whenever I get frustrated in traffic with manual
In terms of nicks and scratches. I'm more talking about underground parking where there are pillars on the sides. Hoping she doesn't rub against something that sort of thing. It's just part of learning process and depends on individuals...of course I hope nothing like that happens.
Civic and Corolla are both good cars. I understand that fully and just don't consider them as sturdy as the accord and camry for highway driving. Also, if she can get used to driving a slightly larger car than her instructors corolla and such. I think it'll help her a ton when it comes to driving any other cars.
I know I did, when I had to drive my family's oldsmobile 88 which was very fun to park in malls or get around tight spots as a new driver compared to friends driving civics and such.
I would prefer the car to have ABS at least for the learning process she knows how to utilize it in the winter time.
I will have a look at some of the 96ish camry on kijiji, but out of the 96 accord and camry. The accord seems bit smaller, but probably handles better too. Reliability wise, I am not sure.
