What's a good car with a $5000 budget?

I don't know too much about cars even though my father is a mechanic. 19 year old guy with only 5000 for my first car. I like Honda's, BMW's, even Rx8's but I'm skeptical about picking a car. What are goods and bads about said cars? Any suggestions on specific cars that are reliable, hardly give problems, and look decent? Please and thank you in advance.

For only $5000, any car you look at could have problems, regardless of brand or model. Therefore, the ONLY way to know whether a used car is worth buying to have that specific car inspected by a mechanic before, Even though Honda, as an example, is a very reliable brand, any Honda for only $5000 is going to be old and have lots of miles, which means that specific car might not be reliable.

Ask your dad.

Well, for $5000, you're probably going to want to just get a basic, economical car. I'm not sure I'd trust an RX8 or BMW that is selling for just 5 grand. Either the BMW is going to be 15-20 years old and probably beginning to fall apart, or the RX8 is going to be pretty abused if it's selling that cheap.

You could get a decent little Civic for that price, ain't going to be anything special though. I'm going to get endless hate from the Japanese fanboys for suggesting this, but you could probably get a nice little '03 VW GTI for 5 grand. I've owned an '07 Volkswagen, and I can vouch for the majority of them, they're good little cars and crazy fun to drive fast and modify if desired. You do have to be careful of the older VWs, probably why a lot of people like to bash their reliability, but an '03 will treat you right if it was taken care of and not abused. I say '03 because that's when their 1.8 turbo got bumped from 150hp to 180. And they're every bit as fast as any Civic Si ever made. YouTube is full of proof of that. Now… If you can afford an '06 or newer GTI, it's an even better car. But normally they'll run closer to 7-10 grand, and as with the RX8, cheap ones are probably cheap for a reason.

Check out Mazda 3s. They are cheaper than Civics, and a lot more fun to drive.

You can't afford the maintenance on a BMW. Rx8s get horrible mileage and there are few less reliable cars than them. OR you could look for na old Acura Integra.

Why not ask your dad

BMW's in the $5000 range have an endless variety of mechanical failures. RX8 - don't really know, but I'd assume high mileage and a short life span, mechanic or not. Honda - not too much wrong with 'em… But it's just like any other mainstream used vehicle. You have to know what you're looking for.