best value? what can i expect?

im new to car buying.
i only care about price/milage and reliability.
whats the lowest i can expect to pay for a reliable car all other features asside?

so far ive looked at the accord and corolla and found 2006 models for around $10k and 30k miles.
are there even cheaper more reliable cars out there?
if so what should i expect to pay for them?

Thanks a lot!

In terms or reliability, not much beats Honda and Toyota in the low price brackets. Honda Fit, Civic, and Accord or the Toyota Yaris, Corolla, and Camry should all work. Accord and Camry are a little bigger, Yaris and Fit are smaller, and Civic and Corolla are in the middle.

If you are looking for price, economy and reliability you should consider domestic manufacturers. While the Honda and Toyota are certainly reliable, they hardly represent value based on typical pre-owned selling prices. If you look at Consumer Reports you can find a lot of domestic brand compacts and mid-size cars that you can buy for cheap and with proper maintainence will serve you well. Specifically, Ford Fusion and Focus are both highly rated and are very inexpensive for 2006-2007 model years. The Pontiac Grand Am is also resonable as are some of the Saturn sedans. The Hyundai Elantra is also a good value (Korean)

thanks for the advice.
what about the nissan altima? i can find some 2006s with 20k miles on them for $13,000.

is that a resonable deal?
what might a better deal look like?

A Nissan Altima is a fine car. They generally don't rank as high as the Hondas or Toyotas on most lists I've seen, but just about any car with 20,000 miles will generally be ok.