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OK everyone, I need advice.
My mother is sick of sharing her car with me and driving one of my father's, and in any event come about Thanksgiving my Dad will put the convertible away for the winter. My parents have therefore declared that its time for me to buy my own car. As my college graduation present I am given $10K with which to do so. Both of my sisters received the same deal, and it apparently ended poorly for both of them. I do not, however, have the luxury of making one of their mistakes: given my lack of gainful employment, whatever car I buy I have to buy outright rather than simply making a sizeable down payment on.
Factoring out tax and a year's worth of insurance, I figure I have (roughly) between $6,000-$7,000 to spend on this car. My mother tells me she'd prefer I were driving a car that was around 5 years old. I am currently gathering information to explain to her that's pretty much patently impossible given what I have to work with. My father is pushing fairly heavily in the direction of a Nissan Altima or Maxima, probably a 1998 model to fit within my budget. While I think his intentions are good (I definitely want a sedan of about that vintage) I really think Nissans are stupid ugly cars.
I've looked at the sort of cars I actually like (in no particular order: Honda Civic, Volkswagon Golf or Passat, Subaru Outback, Toyota Carolla) and discovered to my creeping horror that I'm not sure I can actually afford any of them. It becomes easier to come close if I look at 1998 or '97 models instead of the '99-2000 ones. But at this point I'm shooting in the dark here.
So I would strongly appreciate any helpful thoughts or suggestions.
My mother is sick of sharing her car with me and driving one of my father's, and in any event come about Thanksgiving my Dad will put the convertible away for the winter. My parents have therefore declared that its time for me to buy my own car. As my college graduation present I am given $10K with which to do so. Both of my sisters received the same deal, and it apparently ended poorly for both of them. I do not, however, have the luxury of making one of their mistakes: given my lack of gainful employment, whatever car I buy I have to buy outright rather than simply making a sizeable down payment on.
Factoring out tax and a year's worth of insurance, I figure I have (roughly) between $6,000-$7,000 to spend on this car. My mother tells me she'd prefer I were driving a car that was around 5 years old. I am currently gathering information to explain to her that's pretty much patently impossible given what I have to work with. My father is pushing fairly heavily in the direction of a Nissan Altima or Maxima, probably a 1998 model to fit within my budget. While I think his intentions are good (I definitely want a sedan of about that vintage) I really think Nissans are stupid ugly cars.
I've looked at the sort of cars I actually like (in no particular order: Honda Civic, Volkswagon Golf or Passat, Subaru Outback, Toyota Carolla) and discovered to my creeping horror that I'm not sure I can actually afford any of them. It becomes easier to come close if I look at 1998 or '97 models instead of the '99-2000 ones. But at this point I'm shooting in the dark here.
So I would strongly appreciate any helpful thoughts or suggestions.
