Question of the Day: Is It A Good Idea To Buy A Used Car That Is Only Worth $5,000?

Question: Is it a good idea to buy a used car that is only worth at least $5,000?

It depends on what type of car you’re looking for—as an old adage says, “there’s nothing more expensive than a cheap German car.” (Or British. Or Italian.)

So an equally important question to ask is, how much of a repair budget do you have for a used car? If the answer is little more than an oil change or tune-up, that’d rule out an old Maserati Quattroporte fitting for an ‘80s action hero villain, or some other thoroughly depreciated maintenance deathtrap. What needs do you have with the car? Will you have a long commute, or need to haul a lot of passengers/cargo?

If you just want a reliable, reasonably efficient beater, then there are plenty of reasonable options even in the $2000-$3000 range, like late ‘90s Corollas or Camrys, or a sixth-generation Honda Civic. Reliable works trucks can be had for $5000, like a Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra or a Toyota Tundra from the 2000s. But whatever your preference, here are some general used-car shopping tips:

Shop not by brand, but by specific model and powertrain. Don’t fall into the trap believing that anything by a certain automaker will be reliable. Honda Accord’s for example ran into a spat of faulty automatic transmissions in the mid 2000s. Subarus with a 2.5-liter engine from around 1996-98 had head gaskets prone to failure after 150,000 miles, a fix that potentially costs thousands to fix if it wasn’t done properly before. A late ‘90s BMW 3 Series may be tempting at around $5000, but the cooling system tends to be a weak spot for most Bimmers during that decade, so be prepared to open the wallet for deferred maintenance.