I have a civic and its a great car for practicality purposes. Toyota is awesome too (my parents drive Toyotas, the kids have Hondas) but of the models you picked, I like civics the best. It will also be really easy to find a used one- I have a 98 that I got in 2003 and it was still $9200 (from a Honda dealer, we had a bad experience with an individual seller)! They keep their value very very well.
I have a 2002 Audi A4. I've had the car for over two years and have never had a problem with it. The gas mileage is ok, I don't drive it that much so I can't give you figures. My main reason for purchasing the car was that it was all-wheel drive. I wanted a car that I wouldn't have a problem driving in the snow. So far so good. When I was looking at new cars, I made a point of going on various car review sites. I think the sites where actual car owners gave the reviews. I can't remember the name of the sites, but you can probably do a search for various ones.