[sickcallawayc12]

Originally Posted by blacktoned

Well we went looking for cars today and I saw a nice '00 Ford Escort. It's a 5-speed, 81,000 miles, leather interior, etc. Didn't get the full specs. I liked the compactness of it, I don't want a big car. Hehe. Anyway, since I am 17 with nothing to trade and whatnot I think the dealer said with $500 down I could go with $150/month. His pricing was like $6k. Escort reliable car? Pricing fair?

Don't buy a ford, too untrustworthy nowadays. You may want to look at getting a saturn with a stick. easy to maintain, cheap, and good on gas and insurance plus they're relatively slow so a lead foot would be kind of pointless in one of those . I dunno if they'll give you enough headroom or not so that's an issue, and i dunno if they're good for far trips but if you're just getting your license then you shouldn't be doing any "long trip" driving. driving around town is what you should be concerned about learning how things work on the road and a manual saturn is perfect for what you're looking for. If you need a pickup, i would go with an older s-10 manual, 4X4 if you live in the snow belt, 2wd if you don't.