You guys will laugh at me, but used Saturns go cheap, are reliable and not too expensive to maintain, have good safety features, and the plastic door panels will save you a lot of heartache over door dings. I sold a nice coupe a year ago in really nice cosmetic and mechanical shape, 2000 SC2 with 70k miles, one owner for its life (me) for $4900... I was scalped
but there's a college girl somewhere driving a nice little car.