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I would put it towards a no money down lease for 180-200 dollars a month, and pray I get a job within 8-12 months when my two grand dries up.
2 thousand dollars is not going to buy anything even remotely considered reliable or safe. You can try to parse that any number of ways to justify a purchase, but you're lying to yourself.
For that price range, your best bet in finding something reliable and in good condition is getting an American car like a Crown Vic, 90's to early 2000's Buick, older Jeeps. When if comes to Japanese, you will have better luck looking at Nissans from the late 90's to early 2000's, Sentra, Altima, Maxima, Pathfinder, and older Nissan trucks than buying older Toyotas and Hondas.
I would put it towards a no money down lease for 180-200 dollars a month, and pray I get a job within 8-12 months when my two grand dries up.
2 thousand dollars is not going to buy anything even remotely considered reliable or safe. You can try to parse that any number of ways to justify a purchase, but you're lying to yourself.
This is not true. I always see people making this assumption when they themselves have never really shop for cheap used cars. They just assume that anything that can be had for that price range won't be of any quality.
Ten months ago I was in this very situation when my budget for a second car was only $2500. During my search I saw a lot of choices that werent bad, but ended up settling for a 99 nissan Altima, which I only paid $2200 for. It was in very good condition. It had only 123k miles. Fast track 10 months later, it's now up 130k, and I haven't had to spend more than $150 to repair or replace anything that breaked. Over the 10 months it has never left me on the side the road. It's been extremely reliable!
This is not true. I always see people making this assumption when they themselves have never really shop for cheap used cars. They just assume that anything that can be had for that price range won't be of any quality.
Ten months ago I was in this very situation when my budget for a second car was only $2500. During my search I saw a lot of choices that werent bad, but ended up settling for a 99 nissan Altima, which I only paid $2200 for. It was in very good condition. It had only 123k miles. Fast track 10 months later, it's now up 130k, and I haven't had to spend more than $150 to repair or replace anything that breaked. Over the 10 months it has never left me on the side the road. It's been extremely reliable!
+1
It's a lot more work to find a nice ~$2k car, but that doesn't mean good ones don't exist.
FWIW, in that price range, no one can predict future repairs, (even those who work on cars for a living), so the best bet is to look at cars that have good reputations for reliability & wide availability of parts - and know that even one repair could blow that $2k budget - even so, if it's a "common" vehicle, the parts/repairs won't cost as much & you can take advantage of the "hive mind" on the interwebs to help with diagnosis of common problems.
I just helped my brother pick up a retired municipal Crown Vic (2003) for just a hair over $2k. It looks good, runs good, stops good, has 4 nearly-new Goodyears on it, and only needs minor repairs (a blower motor & alternator).
Three years ago, I spent $3k for a retired municipal pickup, and I've spent less than $300 on maintenance & repairs since then. So it can be done.
I would put it towards a no money down lease for 180-200 dollars a month, and pray I get a job within 8-12 months when my two grand dries up.
2 thousand dollars is not going to buy anything even remotely considered reliable or safe. You can try to parse that any number of ways to justify a purchase, but you're lying to yourself.
One of these days someone is going to ask a question on C-D and there will actually be consensus despite a large number of posts. Later that same day a large asteroid will be discovered heading directly to Earth with impact estimated in 2.5 years.
$2K will indeed buy something reliable and safe. You are lying to yourself if you believe it can't. Maybe that's how you justify paying too much of your income in transportation costs. Really? A lease? I don't know a lease that doesn't require you to take out full ride insurance! Try getting that with finances so dodgy that you are shopping for cars in the $2K price arean. The main problem with low end cars isn't the cars, its the crooks selling them. Its worth it to travel a few miles outside of the main drags of the East Coast and find dealers in less competitive markets.
I don't know... maybe its me, but I really think if you have a hard budget of $2K to buy a car with... a 4.6 liter PU?? Really? I don't care how cheap the gas is right now, a beast like that... 14mpg?? You are going to spend lots of money on an ongoing basis keeping fuel in its tank and when gas prices go back to more sustainable levels you will be looking for a way to get free.
Surely the takeaway is that if, for whatever reason, you find you have only $2K to spend on a vehicle that you perhaps have fallen below the threshold of what it is to have a personal vehicle as an option. You don't. Being America you will think so. Being America there will be plenty of vehicles for sale at that price point, and below.... 25% of homeless people got there because a vehicle dragged them down to financial bedrock.
1996 - 2000 Honda Civic.. I hear that generation is probably one of the best built, and due to the age, you can easily negotiate down to about $2000 (assuming it has around 200K miles)
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