I've been helping some family friends who were facing eviction in December. It's a long story, but at this point they are almost out of the woods; we helped them get a bridge loan from a charity to pay for back rent, and I found some handyman work for the dad, who is a skilled tradesman. I'm lending him our car to get to and from his job, but obviously this is very inconvenient to me.
He's now going to be making $250-300/day for the next couple of weeks, so once he has cleared his bills for the month, he should be able to spend $2K on a vehicle of his own. What's the best way to go about this?
He needs
- a van or minivan would be best, for use in transporting materials
- to transport his family of 4
- as few catastrophic repairs as possible; he lost his last job when his old car died
- good mileage
- low or no monthly payments as his wife has part time work for only $1400 a month and he is frequently fired (ADD, can't be on time to save his life)
- appearance not important
Should he take his chances on Craigslist? I'm concerned that any van for sale that low will have a lot of problems; passenger cars may be sold by fools who just want a newer model, but I imagine that the choice to sell a work vehicle will be more rationally based. In other words, there won't be any bargains.