No doubt, new cars look good and smell nice, but they’re not a good investment. They are expensive and depreciate rapidly. How much money is it best to devote to a used car or truck? To be prudent, you could devote just one tenth of how much you make per year toward buying a cheap car or truck.

For the average Oregon car shopper who earns $39,569 each year, this translates to $3,957. Some cars with high mileage are better than others. Some popular models that you can buy cheaply include the Honda Civic, Acura Legend, Nissan Maxima, Toyota Tacoma, VW Passat, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Subaru Legacy, and Mazda 626.