Moving out of the city around the first of 2015. While we have survived well on one vehicle between my wife and I here, we're moving to an area without a decent public transportation network, so we're going back to being a 2 car household.
Would it make more sense to get a cheap beater (Corolla, Camry, Saturn, whatever) for little cash and hope it holds together for 1-2 years while we get established in a new area and find new jobs, or to get something a bit better and stretch our finances more? A loan is not an option at this time as we're going to be dealing with student loan payments, rent or mortgage, and can't really float a car payment on top of those.
If we get a longer term car we're needing something inexpensive to buy (under $5000), AWD/4WD preferred due to location we're moving to, and not too expensive to have worked on when I can't figure it out myself/don't have the tools/time to do it.
Would it make more sense to get a cheap beater (Corolla, Camry, Saturn, whatever) for little cash and hope it holds together for 1-2 years while we get established in a new area and find new jobs, or to get something a bit better and stretch our finances more? A loan is not an option at this time as we're going to be dealing with student loan payments, rent or mortgage, and can't really float a car payment on top of those.
If we get a longer term car we're needing something inexpensive to buy (under $5000), AWD/4WD preferred due to location we're moving to, and not too expensive to have worked on when I can't figure it out myself/don't have the tools/time to do it.