Car Buying- There's No Cheap Lunch

I'm in the market for a new car. My 13 year old Toyota 4Runner has three idiot lights glowing on the dashboard and there's a rubbing-squeeling sound emanating from the vicinity of the front, driver's side axle that sounds as though the wheel may fall off (my local service station reports that they don't know what is causing this). I've also used Bondo and spray paint on rust holes over the wheel wells. I've loved this car, but it will cost much more to fix than it's worth. The Grim Car Reaper has appeared and announced: "It's time."

I've been researching an inexpensive way to drive and have found that the only great deals are expensive. I'm looking for a cheap payment and reliability.

Leasing The once-good lease deals are pretty much dried up. Apparently the lease companies took a hit in the 90s and have gotten much tougher with offers. Those $20,000 cars for $199 per month for 48 payment deals? Forget it. They want huge down payments (e.g. $3500) and you will have spent over $13,000 in two years and will have nothing to show for it.

Used cars are intriguing, because they seem affordable and they definitely do cost less. But dealers seem to prey upon customers with shallow pockets. It's hard to get a lot of car with the slight reduction in the monthly payment. You can often see some overlapping in prices between year-old cars with 16,000 miles and their brand new counterparts. I did find a really good site that can provide a listing of offers for the model you're looking for in a radius up to 200 miles.
http://www.carsdirect.com/home Good luck with this. I think some dealers may be making offers for cars that don't even exist, as a few have not returned my emails over specific requests.

I am sad to say that New cars cost the most, but seem to be the best deals. If I wanted to spend $18,000 (that's $400 per month for 5 years!) I could get something I'd be really happy with, but I don't. I could get a reliable sedan for a little less than $14, 000 (Honda Civic), but that would be closing in on the price of something I'd really like. You can also get a great new car price offer here: http://www.carsdirect.com/home

So I'm slogging through this process until I can convince myself to either spend more or find the good deal on the used car of my dreams. I may soon be driving on three wheels.