Fifty thousand dollars is an extravagant amount to spend on basic transportation. You could later end up wishing you had that cash in hand. You can get a dece

Fifty thousand dollars is an extravagant amount to spend on basic transportation. You could later end up wishing you had that cash in hand. You can get a decent, reliable, functional used Corolla or similar for $5,000 to $8,000. If you are confident enough in your mechanical skills at assessing the cheaper cars, you can go less than $3,000. If you are in the middle of starting up a business and don't have the time and need the reliability and trunk space, just buy a used Corolla or Chevy Prizm ( the Prizm is a Corolla with the price reduced due to the GM hood emblem ) and spend the rest of your money on things that matter. I currently drive a 1988 VW Jetta with more than 200,000 miles, and my other cars have included a Volvo that I finally killed with 333,000 on the odometer. I have enough mechanical knowledge to fix minor things, and I drive slowly gingerly, so I am pretty good at beating the last 100,000 miles out of a car that the previous owner was about to take to the junkyard. Don't be like me, it probably isn't worth it in the long run. Buy a reliable car less than 7 years old with less than 100,000 miles on it if possible, and spend around $5,000. Don't spend anywhere close to $50,000 on a motor vehicle for basic transportation -- the only things that would justify that would be sports cars, RVs, and possibly specialized work vehicles.