coldhands

My wife and I are moving from an urban setting to the burbs. This means that absent adequate public transportation, we have to buy some cars. Looking for advice on the following topics:

1- Strategies to purchasing cars with minimal risks. Private vs. Dealer. Things to look for. Carfacts reports. etc.

2- Where to look for cars. Cars.com Yahoo Motors. Ebay motors. Gov't Auctions? Craigslist?

3- Suggestions of the types of cars to look at (makes/models, how old can you go. How many miles is too many). Can you trust and American car with more than 100K miles? Does a Subaru with 160K miles still have a lot of life in it?

Like most folks these days, we are on a budget. We want to spend less than $5,000 in total. As I said, we need two cars:

One family car for around town and for visiting family 1-2 times a month (100 miles RT, mostly highway). Has to be safe for the kids and not likely to leave us stuck by the side of the road.

One beater for to get my wide the 4 miles to the train station and for the occasional trip around town. (Note, wife cannot drive stick so manual transmission is out).

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts and for your suggestions. Happy motoring.

__________________
"All it takes to make a difference is the courage to stop proving 'I was right' in being unable to make a difference, to stop assigning cause for my inability to the circumstances outside myself, to be willing to have been that way, and to see that the fear of being a failure is a lot less important that the unique opportunity I have to make a difference."

-Werner Erhard