My first car was $200 and my second car was $75. The $75 car later two years before I left on my mission. I gave it to my uncle who worked at a cement plant and he didn’t like driving his cars because the plant was hard on everybody’s car paint. He had that car for a couple of years after my mission.
Through college and early years of marriage we bought two cars for no more than $2500 each.
We finally bought a new car and still own it after 10 years and 200k miles. I will be getting rid of this car in the next month or two. I cannot see myself buying another new car for a long time. I like buying 2-4 years old.
My first pickup was $2000 and I kept it for 5 years and sold it for $2200. My next pickup was about 7 years newer and cost $10k. I have since traded that one for another that was three years newer.
For my wife, after our first kid, we bought and used crossover SUV for $6500. Then when we had the twins we found a used Honda Odessey with 18,000 miles on it. She has driven that for 5 years and just broke the 100k mike mark.
Had to make things work when I was younger and now it’s easier to buy more dependable cars.