I bought a 1998 Kia Sephia for $1000, with 92k miles on it. Drove it for 2.5 years when the transmission started going out on it at 142k miles. Sold it for $450.
After that bought a 2001 Hyundai Accent for $1000, with 96k miles on it. Drove that thing until it had 136k at which point it started having some issues that would be expensive to fix. Sold that after owning it for 3.5 years for $900. I put about 4k into it, including oil changes, AC charges, and various other bits of maintenance (timing belt was expensive). I don't think I did too bad.
Both cars were bought in Phoenix, AZ, the Kia was sold there too, the Hyundai I sold in Denver, CO since I had moved there.
The Hyundai got fantastic gas mileage at about 30 Mpg with city/highway driving (about 50:50 mix). The Kia a little less at 28 mpg.
Both the Kia and the Hyundai were reliable for the time period that I had the car. Had I put some more time into the Hyundai it would probably have kept going without issues, I just was in the position with work and my finances to be able to go and purchase a car rather than continue putting money into a car.
I picked up a 1996 Honda Civic DX that needed a new clutch and master cylinder ($500 including labor) but was otherwise in great shape (maybe 1 year left on tires/brake pads) for $800.
Sure it had some irrelevant body flaws (bumper paint was flaking a bit and there were some dings on the panels, nothing larger than the size of a half-dollar) but for $1300 and 26-28mpg, not a bad deal at all!
Just scour Craigslist and local (physical) boards.
After that bought a 2001 Hyundai Accent for $1000, with 96k miles on it. Drove that thing until it had 136k at which point it started having some issues that would be expensive to fix. Sold that after owning it for 3.5 years for $900. I put about 4k into it, including oil changes, AC charges, and various other bits of maintenance (timing belt was expensive). I don't think I did too bad.
Both cars were bought in Phoenix, AZ, the Kia was sold there too, the Hyundai I sold in Denver, CO since I had moved there.
The Hyundai got fantastic gas mileage at about 30 Mpg with city/highway driving (about 50:50 mix). The Kia a little less at 28 mpg.
Both the Kia and the Hyundai were reliable for the time period that I had the car. Had I put some more time into the Hyundai it would probably have kept going without issues, I just was in the position with work and my finances to be able to go and purchase a car rather than continue putting money into a car.