Help! Need a car for an 18 y.o. Girl.

My friends sister has flown in from Arizona and she is attending school in Chicago. She is commuting to the train, so hypermileage isn't necessary. I have a supposed budget of $3000. I don't want to get her something bland and boring, but it needs to be reliable, inexpensive to fix, and gets descent mileage.

I have really not looked much farther than Toyota/Hyundai/Kia, but all I have found is bland and boring. Also it has to be automatic. She told me she was interested in a pickup, but since gas is at $3.30 here right now I don't think that's going to be feasable.

Looked on auto trader, slim pickins in that price range and looked at craigslist, that's kind of a joke.

Buick, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Saturn, Ford, Mercury, etc

that price range gets you nothing but boredom if you want it to be 18 year old girl reliable.

Btw, is she hot?

She kinda likes the 1950's Pinup stuff, so this is the only pic I have of her.

1300ZUK wrote:Buick, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Saturn, Ford, Mercury, etc

My problem is, I want to be able to work on it. No V6 fwd crap.

wouldn't mind a peak at her undercarraige

You might need to blow the budget and get her a 60s Mustang convertible.
Failing that an E30, preferably convertible.

You know it's sad that 15 years ago you could get a nice 60's Mustang for like $5k or less, now you can't get one for less than $20k.

If she wants a pickup and but is worried about gas prices, why not get a small toyota or ranger or something?

http://chicago.craigslist.org/sox/cto/2141932039.html

Corolloa wagon!

Corlola

I have found a couple Rangers in my price range that are 4-cyl Auto, standard cab short bed.

cobalt? :)

Can you get a decent Cobalt for only $3,000? The oldest ones are only about 5 years old.

SBF wrote:I have found a couple Rangers in my price range that are 4-cyl Auto, standard cab short bed.

A co-worker of mine had a four-banger, standard cab Ranger. He commutes 75 miles a day to work and back... yes, 150 miles a day. He put 240,000 miles on that thing before it took a shit. He said that other than replacing the clutch at ~ 200, he never did anything to it; didn't change the oil after the truck hit 150k. No, really... "just keep adding it as needed."

He ended up buying another one.

SBF wrote:She kinda likes the 1950's Pinup stuff, so this is the only pic I have of her.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f32/12/72/45/62/29864_10.jpg

Oh man I hate those granny pantie bikini bottoms. So glad they were left in the 50's.

JaysonAych wrote:Can you get a decent Cobalt for only $3,000? The oldest ones are only about 5 years old.

probably not. maybe twice that. but it's hard to find any real decent car for 3K.

Turbojett wrote: but it's hard to find any real decent car for 3K.

That's the problem I'm finding, but I found a super nice 1999 Infinity G20 for $2800 with a little over 100k.

I'll sell her a '97 Bravada for $3000.

Benfolio wrote:I'll sell her a '97 Bravada for $3000.

May be missing a trim piece here or there.

Or a transfer case

Talon wrote:

SBF wrote:She kinda likes the 1950's Pinup stuff, so this is the only pic I have of her.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f32/12/72/45/62/29864_10.jpg

Oh man I hate those granny pantie bikini bottoms. So glad they were left in the 50's.

Even the high waist-ed bottoms of the 80's and 90's kind of annoy me.

SBF wrote:Or a transfer case

Oh that's been replaced. It's been on the road faithfully for a month or so now.

Just got to get that CEL fixed.

After I figure out why the scanner won't read the DLC.....

1300ZUK wrote:

Talon wrote:

SBF wrote:She kinda likes the 1950's Pinup stuff, so this is the only pic I have of her.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f32/12/72/45/62/29864_10.jpg

Oh man I hate those granny pantie bikini bottoms. So glad they were left in the 50's.

Even the high waist-ed bottoms of the 80's and 90's kind of annoy me.

Christie brinkley...not minding that at all