re: Used car buying advice for an OT poor?

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The price range I'm looking at is actually in the $20-27k range.

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That's a good budget. Just bought a great 2011 Ford Edge with 65k miles on it for around $17k. What kind of vehicle are you looking for? SUV? Truck? Car?

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"don't buy anything over 50,000 miles" and "don't buy anything older that a few years."

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Well that's not right. You make the money on your car when you first purchase it. Within reason, it's nice to get something where the steeping portion of the depreciation has already occurred. Cars these days can run smoothly past 250k miles. You just have to make sure the vehicle has been properly maintained. In my case, I was trying to get something under 70k miles.

Also, stick to cars that were only driven in the south, because they won't have the rusting issues that cars get in the north (snowy) areas.

ETA: Try browsing CarGurus.com. It's a great site with lots of local listings all over the US. You can easily set the price you want, mileage, type, trim, year, etc.