What is the cheapest that you would personally recommend a college student go when trying to buy a used car to get...

What is the cheapest that you would personally recommend a college student go when trying to buy a used car to get around? At what point does it become to much of a risk, or "more pain that its worth"?

because of the last shithead president, decent cheap cars are few and far between (cash for clunkers). the market is starting to recover from that but it will be a while considering used cars were effectively culled from the market.

I would say you can get away with buying a $1200 - $1500 sedan, like a Honda Civic or Toyota Camry.

it depends entirely on the car. your pic is actually one of the best shitboxes ever made in terms of price, reliability, and repairability.

can you do some maintenance yourself? then you can go pretty low.

If not just lease a base model fiesta or some shit

Get a low capacity motorbike like a 125 (in the UK). Will be immeasurably cheaper to tax run and insure than even the worst shit box.

Buy a corolla. Cheap as dirt, reliable and safe.

2500. you can get clean stock 01-05 civics for that much. they have everything you need and nothing your don't.

A lot of campuses have a shop that sells them nearby. They can be under 1k used and new around 2-2.5k. To plate them is cheap, to insure them is like 150 a year, and do around 100mpg. If you just need something to get around campus and downtown these are great. Unless it snows.

>What is the cheapest that you would personally recommend a college student go when trying to buy a used car to get around? At what point does it become to much of a risk, or "more pain that its worth"?

I bought a 99 intrigue from a feminazi sister in law who hates my guts for $500, she was basically trying to fuck me over by selling me what in her mind was a totalled car worth scrap weight hoping to make some quick money while trapping me with 17 years of estrogen fueled mechanical neglect. I learned how to turn a wrench on that hunk of shit and in a year I went from being a NEET to a service mechanic that makes almost twice as much as she does. I still have the Intrigue as my DD too and It really must piss my sister in law off seeing her "scrap" car run better than it has in years.

Damn dude. Good job

Would anyone recommend a 2009 Mazda 3? They want 2000 CAD for it, 170km. It appears to be in decent shape at least.

Are they reliable first cars?

Depends what it is and if you can work on it yourself.

I sold my collegebox for $200 (tires were about new and I'd just done all the usual maintenance). Guy who bought it understood that it was an old car with 200k+ on it and was going to need attention. He wanted a car that he would be learning to work on anyway and thought it was a great deal. But if he were somebody's car-ignorant daughter or something it would have been a terrible decision.

The hero Veeky Forums needs

You can find low mile scooters for so cheap around campuses. They're a shitload cheaper to operate as you can often park them with bicycles instead of paying whatever hundreds per semester to park a car. Bigger ones can even run out to the suburbs.

unironically get a $3k civic

~$2,000 depending on your used car market in your area. Some places you can get a reliable car for $1,500 some places it takes $2,500 but that's about the range.

I had an 08 and never had a single problem, just did regualr oil changes. I beat the shit out of mine and it never failed

No match for suziki. I've owned both.

If they salt the roads where you are check carefully for rust but aside from that I like em

I had a cheap chinese scooter for my first year of college and you know what happened?

[spoiler] i loved every minute of it and it got me into motorcycling [/spoiler]

>Unless it snows.
I went to a school where it snowed nearly all year and people still rode those around

>college students will defend this and try to tell me i am an idiot for getting a job when i was 16
>tfw i own 2 cars
>tfw i own 2 dirt bikes
>tfw i own my own house

3k civic

>13 years ago
>bitch step mother needs a new car
>she asks me, being the family car guy, what i think she should buy
>say a used accord or camry
>she ignores my wisdom and buys a throwaway suzuki shitbox instead
>a few months later
>brakes give out on a highway offramp
>she had the audacity to blame it on me claiming i sabotaged her brakes(i never even looked at the car let alone laid a finger on it)
>she's constantly running her fucking mouth
>tell my dad he married a psycho
>he subtly agrees
>another few months later
>recalls start coming in the mail every week
>seatbelts
>brakes
>steering
>cruise control
>the whole fucking car is being recalled
>she trades it in at a loss for a 2011 accord

i never got to say i told you so

>13 years ago
>2011
>whole car recalled after what sounds like a year or two
She had the shitbox for that long?

this was like 2010-2012 so i guess not 13 years ago. didn't really think about it much twobh. the years turn into a blur after a while

I'm in a kind of similar position (I'm not after pure shitboxes, something more interesting though), would you guys recommend a W202 (probably a C250TD) for a daily driver/occasional hoon car in the wet? For some reason I can find them really cheap in my country, 750-1k for a decent example, 1,5k for a pretty good one. Aside from rust, do these have any model specific problems? And if I wanted to prevent rust from developing, is there anything to do aside from not driving it in the snow?

God damnit i hate faggles like you..

HE'S A FUCKING COLLEGE STUDENT
This isn't his toy, he needs to be able to pack up his shit in it, his groceries, books, grills, pets, friends, family, and fucking keep warm in the winter or at night time when driving,
now in what fucking universe is a fucking motorcycle going to out perform basic life duties and errands better than a car??

Have you tried driving around in -40 below winter with black ice and having to drive you and your friends or family or just yourself somewhere? It's fucking horrible, now try that on a bike and good fucking luck if you don't die..

>Fucking think you fucking mudslime britbong

Wut??
Wtf are you trying to impress?

Most ppl have had a job at 16?
What's your fucking point?

Having a job at 16 really isn't impressive....

because my job lead me to better places, meanwhile everyone i know who went to college is paying off an 80k debt while they live with their parents.

And?
Not everyone who gets a job at 16 has it lead to something good, more often than not most places that hire 16yr olds aren't places you usually want to be past 25

Depends on his circumstances, if he only needs it as transportation through the city and the weather isn't too bad year round, a bike is great, it will cost less and will allow him to filter through traffic. Obviously if he needs to carry a lot of shit or the winters are really harsh, a bike is out of the question

you sound like you fucking wasted college if you even went

>needs car
>wasted college
Wut.

I spent $300 on a '93 pontiac bonneville with bad brake lines. Fixed it for next to no money and it was phenomenal, until some jackass rear ended it

I hear good things about them. A buddy had one and slapped a turbo setup on it.

Probably is, you could spend $1,000 and have a vehicle last a year no problems, and you could spend $10,000 on a similar, newer car, and have a number of fail and leave you stranded a bunch of times over the course of a year.

I'm also a college kid looking for a car. Is looking for the best mpg an important thing to consider? I don't want to spend $40+ on gas weekly if a cheap car has a low mpg, but I don't see a lot of people consider this factor when discussing getting a first car.

>college student
>having an even ok credit score

OP might have to have his mom co sign some shit if he goes that route, unless he has a pretty decent downpayment or something.

>all these people hating college because some college kid the the manager role they wanted
kek

just get a bicycle from the pawn shop