I was in an accident on Thursday morning on my way into work and my car is totalled (no one injured beyond a few scrapes and bruises). An officer actually got the whole thing on camera. I'm not at fault, and it was a commercial vehicle that hit me (Comcast van) so I'm hoping the insurance claim will get resolved relatively quickly.
This puts me in the unfortunate position of needing to get a new (to me) car on short notice. Because this was so sudden and I was planning on running my car into the ground after another 4+ years, I haven't done any research into used cars. I have a little rental that I should be reimbursed for eventually, but in the mean time I'm stuck paying for it out of pocket. Kelley blue book only put my old 2002 car at $2,000 on a good day, or a $800 trade-in. I can't drive manual right now, but I do want to learn - issue is that I live on my own and don't know anyone closer than 150 miles away who could help me learn (and actually drive the car off the lot/driveway when I buy it). I can't think of a better community to ask about efficient, not-ridiculous cars than this forum, so I was hoping the mustachians would be able to help!
I have about $5K in a checking account I can freely use, another $1K in a CD that I can withdraw early, and 3K in a savings account that will charge a fee if it dips below 1.5K (9K all-in). Any more than this and I'll be dipping into invested retirement savings.
Typical driving habits are ~20-25 miles per weekday for work related (mostly open highway) driving, and a ~200/240 mile drive back home to visit family/friends for a weekend every other month.
I did get one lead on a 2013 Ford Fiesta that one of my good friends' parents are selling back in our home town. Other than that, I don't know where to even start. It's got 44K miles on it, was originally bought new, and they're selling it for the current value of the loan at around $5.7K. The pictures look like it's in decent shape, and this family generally takes good care of their things. It is manual, so I'd have to work out logistics there, but since it's in my home town I could probably get my dad or sister to help me learn for a few days. Worth looking into?