College Student in need of help!!

[MMeyers]

Hey everyone, long time lurker around these parts but this is obviously my first post.

I am going to be a sophomore in college next fall and right now I am working two great paying jobs this summer working up to 14hrs per day.. recently my car, 95' Mits. Eclipse, went out on me and I had to sell her for $250 So from that point up until now I have been driving around my Mom's car becasue she can carpool to work. But, as you'd imagine this scenario cannot continue much longer. I need a car, and soon!

I am really bad about the kind of car I drive, I kind of have an obsession with driving a semi-nice car.

Basically what I am getting at is I don't want to have to buy some late-80s civic or something similiar. I am ready and willing to take out a small loan, but am not wanting to have to pay much more than $200/month on it.. and certainly don't want to be tied up in a loan for 3-5 yrs if the car isn't going to last me that long.. example being I bought me Eclipse for around $2200 cash and it lasted me just over a a year and a half. Or would it be a better call to lease a car for around $200/month.. (Im not fully aware of how leasing a car works..other than what I found here and there on the net)

I don't know if this makes much sense but I hope it does.. Im just as confused on what to do as it may sound like. I'm just really looking for a small, sporty, and good looking car that will be RELIABLE and worth the money I am willing to throw down on it.

Please let me know if ya'll have any advice or options to throw at me as my parents aren't much help at all haha.

Thanks in advanced!

[sickcallawayc12]

Just get an Accord V6. One of the best selling and reliable cars in America, most models have a decent aftermarket available if not all, and has better get up and go than a civic.

[speedracer1407]

Althoug the desire to drive a nice car is reasonable, and the need to pay $200/month is reasonable, the fact that you don't want a 3-5 year commitment towards loan payments is a serious limiting factor. It's VERY hard to get a loan from a bank (whether it's a dealer or national banking chain) on a car that that's old enough to be paid off in less than 3-5 years with $200/mo payments. The fact is that if you don't want to drive an old, high mileage car for $3000, you'll have to finance something, and in order to finance, you'll have to get something relatively expensive. Generally speaking, a $10,000-12,000 car can be financed for $200-250/month over 5 years. I can't see any other option than this unless you have a friend/family member willing to lend you money, or you have a stockpile of cash.

Leasing is a terrible idea since, for $200/mo, you're still looking at 3-5 years of payments, and at the end of the term, you'll have to give the car back, and you'll be right back where you started, even if you can afford more by then.

[MMeyers]

Yea I hear ya on the leasing thing I'm just really nervous that if I do take out a loan that will last me 3-5 years and that car breaks down on me..then im stuck with a dead car and 1-2 years of loans to pay off for something that I don't even use. But then again maybe I'm just over-nervous casue of the amounts of money we are talking about. There are several cars I have in mind as far as fairly new and low miles are concerned so maybe I'm making reliabilty to much of a factor considering im basing most of them off my now 12 year old eclipse that had 145k miles on it.