It depends. Buying a $3000 car can work for you and against you. I spent $15000 on my WP Zetec which is a load (to me anyway) for a 17 year old. But in saying that I worked my freaking *** of to pay it off (had a $7000 deposit saved) and it was reliable, cheap to run and insure. Not to mention safe, I'm a massive supporter of
ABS brakes which I would not have had on the other cars I looked at. In the time most my mates were onto their third or fifth I still had my WP, that was paid off.
Everyones different I suppose. You just gotta have your mind set on the bigger plan and not just a few months. That and prepair