Three months ago Megan bought herself a nice replacement car for her 1998 Toyota Camry. She had the Camry for 5 years, and for the most part it treated her well. However, the time finally came to replace the 22-year-old car. It had well over 200k miles, and was requiring more maintenance than the car was worth. A persistent oil leak and an upcoming timing belt replacement didn't help matters.
Megan found herself a 2007 Mazda CX-5 in excellent, well-maintained condition, in which the owner kept documented records and receipts. The car even had new Continental Contact tires (approx $800 total), as he wasn't planning to sell the car anytime soon. She got the car at an excellent price and paid cash. Megan will be 25 soon (attending full-time university), and she still has no idea what credit is.
The only set-back is that the car is a 5-speed manual, so Megan had to learn a new trick. Lol. Thanks to learning to drive a stick, she jerked the car so violently the first time she drove it that a broken coil spring loosened up on the rear left. The previous owner would not have known the problem was there, so we didn't complain. Besides, it was a very easy fix that I took care of. She followed it up with a fresh 4-wheel alignment, and all is well.