<prompt> Human: A recurring piece of advice given in rPF is to sell your new or newish car and buy a cheap used car to help pay off debt.This is curious to me because it seems like it comes with a fair amount of risk. I personally wouldnt want to choose something that ends up costing me money, time or frustration in the long run...thereby damaging the goal of paying off debt.Basically, how are you not pouring money into unexpected repairs? Is it because:a. You have a relativefriend that knows how to help you choose a good used car?b. You have an existing good relationship with a mechanic?c. You are a mechanical engineer or mechanic yourself?d. Other?Just curious why these cars are not risky in most peoples opinion?And for context, my debt is not eating me alive, but I have about 10K equity in my car right now and some low interest card debt. I am considering selling and buying used but I am just scared of the risk from my perception. For the record I definitely could understand maybe taking the risk if someone is drowning in debt super high balanceinterest rate, low income, etc..EDIT: I did not expect this discussion to be so popular as it is my first Reddit post ever. :- Good points below, I did not expect so many folks to share my thoughts on the risk! Those folks valued the peace of mind...which I do as well. Many of you who are proponents of the magical 3000 car mitigated that risk because of a-c above, earning to do the work on your own or knowing the seller of the vehicle.  <response>: Keep in mind that my experience with this is 10 years old, so adjust prices accordingly. In college I had a series of extremely cheap either free hand-me-downs from family or 1k-3k purchase price cars that mostly worked, but broke down frequently. By far the best was a Ford Tempo. It was a horrible car, but man was it cheap and easy to fix. Everything was an off-the-shelf part and the whole thing was such a simple car that I was able to do more myself than I would normally be able to do, and when I had to take it in for work it was always really quick and cheap to fix.The most bizarre experience was when I went over a bump and the exhaust system fell off. I pulled into a muffler shop, and they literally pulled a giant white box off the shelf that contained the entire exhaust system from the CC through the muffler of a Ford Tempo in it I assume because it was some standardized Ford exhaust system that would fit a wide variety of cars. A few minutes and a couple of welds later and I was back on the road for under 200 out of pocket if memory serves. It was ridiculous. I still doubt my memory of the incident because the price seems way too low.So I guess my answer is that when I drove 3k cars, I was pouring money into repairs. However, different cars were way more expensive and difficult to repair than others. As soon as I got into more stable financial shape I bought a 10k used car that didnt break down all the time. 