Monkeymama mentioned she was looking to see if I'd been saving for a car & I will admit, I've made a mistake here. My car was in pretty good condition and there'd been no indication of any major problems. I planned putting more toward auto savings starting this summer for a new to me car in about 2 years (when my car hit about 11 years in age and closer to 100k miles).

Well, plans change & I have learned to not make assumptions on the longevity in my car. I have about $2.5-3k in cash to put down, so thats something.

I am looking at a car payment though, at least for a little while (I will aggressively be paying down the loan asap). I also have been scouring online & local dealers and I'm having trouble finding any reasonable used cars.

I think that based on the economy, people are keeping their cars longer & there seems to be less deals on used cars out there (the car I have now had 20k miles at 4 years with only 1 owner when I bought it). Now I'm seeing 40k milage on 3 year old cars.

So I have opened my options to include new cars. It would be my first if I went that route. I am an advocate of buying used, but sometimes there are deals to be had with new.

I will update you all with what I do, but I can tell you, I'll be moving quickly. I'm at the mercy of my parents who drove me around today & are letting me borrow their car Monday.