<prompt> Human: I currently use a car that my parents own but they monitor my every move in it. They take photos of the odometer and refuse to let me use it if they dont know where I am going. Then they add up the miles of the trips that they have approved and question me if Im even a couple miles over that. I would really like to buy my own car but due to some big medical expenses I only have around 5k in the bank. I am a sophomore in college and I am unable to earn much money during school and the money I do earn goes to foodother expenses but have a steady summer job that earns around 4-5k per summer and I have basically no expenses in the summer since Im living at home. How much money should I have before buying a car and what is a ballpark estimate of the minimum total yearly price for one including the insurance, tuning, etc?  <response>: Youll have to shop for insurance hint: its going to be expensive, but spending around 2k on a car seems reasonable in your situation. Maintenancegas expense depend a lot of how much you drive and what kind of car you drive: for example, I budget around 125month for gas and 75month for maintenance. 