Look at Toyota Corollas barely anything IF anything goes wrong with them, Camrys are good or are you looking more off-roader type?

ON-road defs defs, driving into New Orleans so lots of 70-80mph traveling

Don't buy a Nissan with a CVT. Their reputation is terrible. If you get a manual Versa that's a decent car.

I'd see how cheaply you can get into a Civic/Corolla/Crosstrek/Impreza if that's the kind of car you're looking for.

perhaps the same could be said about ALL transmissions

Love that line from that one Transylvania game lol

Toyotas are good cars, but less so the more recently they're made, and hard to find.
The used car market is still a bit gouged and fucked from covid era. The nissan versa is fine, CVTs are problematic but less so the more recent the car is.
Dealership will aim you towards monthly payments to distract you from end, total sticker price. Don't let them, it isn't your imagination and the end price really matters.
Unless you're buying it cash, the loan matters a lot -- API is important, but more subtle stuff is moreso -- you have to find out of the loan will allow you to pay double towards the principle. IE., if you make double payments you can avoid paying the interest that might inflate the price by 33-77%.
Prioritize value at the moment, you don't want to be buying a new car right now and so don't spend extra on features, you may wind up replacing the vehicle when your circumstances change.
If you can somehow buy the car cash, if you don't have credit established you may want to take the loan anyway, ONLY AFTER VERIFYING YOU CAN MAKE ADDITIONAL PAYMENTS BEYOND THE MONTHLY, and pay off the car quickly if not immediately to establish credit like a boss. As credit will be needed later, and lots of folks tend to avoid 'debt' because nobody likes owing money, only to get fucked when it's too late.

New cars have drivetrain coverage, IE., the car is covered for most anything that can go wrong for a big chunk of mileage, and that's the biggest pro to buying new\certified used versus used.
But don't confuse that for a guarantee that nothing can go wrong in that time, just that if it does they'll take a mystery amount of time fixing it for free. So reliability and reviews still matter.

Shopping for a model that is sold new but still a year or two old can let you look up reviews for that model from people that have already been driving it for months.

yeah, i don't think i've HEARD of CVT transmissions up until now cos usually it's all "automatic this, manual that"

i can definitely use this shitass cocksuckin nissan frontier as a motherfuckin, goddamn collateral for a loan since i was tricked into paying it off lump sum at the dealership in my name

i just gotta like, do a lotta screaming cos my folks DON'T want a toyota/mitsubishi/chevy (even tho we have a fuckin chevy that lasted at least 8 years)

idk i'm just iffy about getting a "2025" nissan or subaru cos uh, it's not even 2025 so idk how that works cool cool cool is it a lemon or a lime

A CVT is a good idea -- ideally it's perfect gas efficiency -- but still new tech and so nobody's really designed them well yet. But in terms of practicality, it means you gotta service the CVT fluid and the CVT itself every 70k miles or so.
If someone got you to pay off a car lump sum once already you're toasted -- they know you got cash, people seldom if ever do that even when they can, these days, and most folks are way more used to being constantly under the thumb of a car loan, that they can barely pay, and barely avoid getting repo'd. So if someone can demonstrate that they're miles better off than that buying a ride cash, then you're uncle moneybucks as far as they're concerned

i would rather buy sixteen $1000 cars looking for a good one than give $16k to a dealership. fuck me with a rake

i'm just gonna start walking instead fuck cars my legs are huge.

Check Edmunds Dot com
Very helpful

We went to an automotive liquidator for ours, it's a chevy equinox. Shit's got notorious issues with the timing chain and she's a slutty oil guzzler. Reliable, AWD and good for winter weather.

Toyotas are good, if you can spring for an older model lexus, go for it.

in a perfect world

i'd have an H3 like god fucking intended.

My experience with a Hyundai Elantra was very good, but that was a 2006. Whatever you do, don't get anything that has CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission). It sounds like a good idea, until you realize that we have electric motors for that shit, and that CVTs don't break down—they self-destruct, and it's just a matter of time.

I work at a Mazda dealership and these little ricers go for a long time if you take care of em. A Mazda CX-5 is a pretty nice lil ride for going a long ways, but the Mazda 3 is a nice hatchback sedan option. Both will go 250k+ miles without needing any transmission service and parts for them are cheap when something does go wrong. If you do your own repairs, Jeeps are nice because you can find a dozen of whatever model you have in the junkyard and you can cannibalize parts to your heart's content.

If you can, buy a used model from around two to four years ago. You won't lose much in terms of features and it'll be cheaper. A lot tend to come up because common lease terms end within that range, and most car search engines (i.e. autotrader, cars.com, KBB, edmunds, carfax) will let you restrict to ones with one owner, no accidents, fair price, distance from you, etc. I'd also double check reviews to see if there are any common issues with a model before buying, and because sometimes certain years are better than others.

Best advice I can offer is avoid anything with a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), especially ones in Nissans.

Avoid any Nissan with a CVT as they fail all the time. I also will say stay away from Ford Focus with the Dual Clutch (Talking from my $4k in repairs to said transmission.) Have you looked into anything like used Honda Civics or even Mitsubishi Mirage (Yeah, low on power but reliable and super fuel efficient.) Also can say from experience that I am fond of Ford Fusions (Super reliable and have decent transmissions for ford.)

Mazda 3 might be a good bet. Not the most comfortable ride but my sisters has been tanking everything thrown at it for like 8 years

Toyota camery or venza with the 4 banger, Ford crown vic/lincoln town car? I would not buy a Nissan at all or any gm with the 3.6 or any ford/gm ecoboost anything

Hate Nissan. Every one I've worked on has been a pain in the ass. Subaru used to be a great engineering-driven company, but I don't know about the recent models. Toyotas are hard to kill. Hyundais are also pretty reliable.

Avoid Nissan (explosive CVT), Kia, Hyuandai (poor reliability), for domestic (repairable but less reliable) go Chevy, for foreign Toyota, Honda, or sometimes Subaru (check that head gasket problem not present). Remember that all used car salesman are ontologically evil so get a mechanical to look at it or an ironclad warranty. I'd get a Civic or Corolla or something from ~2015 or so

Most shops will check a car for about 100 bucks. Totally worth it of you are buy used.

Get a Toyota or a Honda sedan. If you get a crosstrek be careful about the engine. Some of their 4 cylanders blow gaskets still. Nissan is meh. Do not buy American. Deffinently do not buy European.

If it were me, I would look for a used private party car unless you need the dealer to finance for you. 6,000 is a lot of money when it comes to used cars, you can get something fairly nice. People have already suggested some good brands to look at. Personally I also like Honda and Toyota's, almost any model, from 2000-2010. Usually that's the sweet spot.

Before you pay money for any car, it's worth it to take it to another shop and get a PPI "Pre Purchase Inspection"

It's usually 100-200$ and they will put it up onto a lift and go through all the vital parts of the car so you know it's being represented correctly. If the person selling it doesn't want it to go and get a PPI, then you know they probably have something to hide.

I would never purchase a car without one.

Use cargurus to find deals. Get a cheap subcompact sedan with under 60k miles on it. No accidents or any bullshit like that. You could probably get something for 10-15k without any headaches.

I am a lil late to the party, but I absolutely love my ford maverick.

Yeah some purist truck owners may scoff at it, but the things gets me from point A to point B with decent fuel and decent utility.