What is the cheapest car you've ever bought?

Ford LTD Country Squire wagon with the faux wood sides. $400. That was a low point in my life in 1996. It was all I could afford. Put over 10k miles on it.

Merkur XR4Ti $400. 99k miles. Purchased in 2000 when my life was getting back on track and $400 was slightly more than pocket change. That thing was junk. Needed radiator, clutch and the exhaust manifold glowed bright red after driving it a while. It would start randomly now and then. Spooked me. Fun car when it ran well, though. Plans to take it to Carlisle didn't work out.
 
1979 Ford Fairmont for $100

Drove it for 3 years, with a total cost of $1200 over the 3 years. Sold it for $500

I wasn't driving as many miles then, it was my airport car. Left it parked while I was flying here and there teaching Java programming and Solaris classes for Sun Microsystems in the 1990s.

It had good heat and A/C and was reasonably reliable.

My wife (now ex) was tired of looking at it and wanted me to get rid of it, so I did.
 
'58 Ford two door station wagon. 352 Police Interceptor, 3 on the tree with pull out (handle) overdrive made it a 5 speed. $100...no extra charge for rotted floorboards.
 
Okay second cheapest. 1988 Mitsubishi Mighty Max aka Dodge Ram D50. Bought sometime in the late 90's for $300. Only work done was new brake booster and master cylinder since the MC was leaking into the booster. After a failed carburetor replacement to solve an idling issue we got rid of it in 2006.
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1997 Chevrolet Malibu 2.4L 74k Kms. for $400. I bought it off a co-worker around 2013; it belonged to his late mother. IIRC, I only drove it for a couple of years because the brake line below the master and near the fire wall let go; it was time anyways. It had manual door locks and windows with A/C and the A/C worked! I only put a muffler on it and minor patch on the RR rocker to cerfity it.
 
$200 1988 Subaru XT 5 speed automatic. It was this really odd sport coupe with severe rust that the seller had special shop to get your stick-ah so it could pass state inspection. Quite reliable but quite rotten. Unfortunately an elongated trip of 1 week to 4 week in pricey airport parking it was not there and never bothered finding it.
 
I paid $1200 to a friend pretending to be a buyer for my father in law's beater camry so he will shut the heck up and stop bothering me, then found out he lied and wanted to scam my friend about the car's defect (saying he has to pay $400 to rent the car for 2 weeks he had if he wanted to return it). I spend about $200 trying to fix it up and then sold it for $1400 broke even, disclosing all the problem I couldn't fix to the next buyer, he was happy about it.

So yeah, private sellers aren't always honest. When my brother in law and father in law broke up due to finance issue father in law wanted to hint that if I buy out my bro in law's share of his house it would be a good deal. I told him I'm saving my credit rating and line of credit for something else and not interested. He could sell it or get foreclosed and I don't care, I have a place for him to live and that's all we will do.

Other than that I personally bought only new cars, $22k 14 Prius V left over model 5k off MSRP, $33k 08 IS250, $17k 97 Integra, $13k 95 Corolla. Dad bought Hertz retired 01 Taurus for 11k used the same year, 14 Mazda 5 used for 14k at 3rd year retired rental as well, and 12 Mazda 2 used for 7200 at 6th year from a dealer in rural California just trying to get rid of it.
 
First car was a 1980 Chevy Chevette. Bought it from a family friend for $400, which seems to be a popular price in this thread… odometer had stopped working at 84,000 miles and it wasn’t much to look at, but it ran for more than 2 years while I was in HS. Was a four speed manual, so I lear how to drive stick early.
 
$5 for a ‘73 VW bus when I was 17. It hadn’t run in years and had been towed to 3 different shade tree mechanics by the previous owner. Once I figured the timing was 90 degrees off, it fired right up. It had 150,000 miles on it, had no compression, and topped out at about 25-30 mph. I used it while gradually working on it and saving for parts. It overheated on an uphill, and while cooling down, unleaded seeped through the carbs and leaky valves and filled up the muffler. When I finally got it to turn over, i became intimately familiar with a southern CarBQue.

my favorite cheap car was a 93 ZJ. My ex didn’t understand my enjoyment of cars and since I had a running car why would I want something fun? So I saved up gig money in cash in the barrel of a flashlight until I could carry $1800 to a remote Ford dealer and buy the heap. we then traded my sedan and her old crv to get her a new car for a new job and commute she was facing. Really enjoyed it and should have kept it. My son /wept/ when I traded it in later - but maintaining my schedule for a 9-5er as it hit 250k miles was difficult. but man than thing was so much fun.
 
When I was 16 in 1999 I purchased my first car. A 1985 Mazda 626 GT Turbo. Had 160K miles and paid $500. Little 2 door, 5 speed with the turbo engine. Drove that thing until it was too expensive to fix and junked it. It had that magnetic electronic suspension, blew a strut and it would have been way expensive to fix it. No used parts available.

I'm ashamed to say I never changed the oil in that car for the few years and like 15-20K miles I owned it. I added some oil but at the time I didn't know any better. Surprised it didn't blow up the way I drove it!
 
My parents had an '86 Mazda 626 gt turbo. That thing was supposedly a 7.8 second zero to 60 car, but I think it was closer to 6 seconds I can still see and feel the boost when that green light lit up when mashing the pedal and powershifting it. Got my first wreckless driving ticket in it, 2 weeks after getting my license. The cop said he didn't see what I did, only the tire smoke.

2nd second gear and the E brake was involved ;)
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In '99 I bought a 73 Holden Kingswood Belmont sedan just outside Perth, Western Australia from a departing Dutch windsurfer.
For what was about 325 US$ at that time.

I Sold it in Sydney, around a year later, for the same price, and likely could have got more, as the first person who knew I was leaving the country asked me for it, and went straight to the ATM.

I replaced the speedo cable, and tires, and the driveshaft U joints in that time. Had coolant flushed and oil changed twice. It used almost no oil and I had no hesitancy driving it across the Nullabor plain.

Everywhere I went i was told I couldn't have bought a better vehicle to tour Australia in.

I bet that thing is still operational.
I Still have dreams about it.
 
In 1993 I was 14 and I bought a 1979 Trans Am from a college girl who overheated it and cracked the block. I paid her $300, she was asking $900.
 
Paid 100 bucks for a 92 Cavalier that I drove for 2 years. Paid 900 bucks for a 92 Grand Marquis that I had for 9 years. Currently have a 99 Blazer I paid 500 for, a 2003 Suburban I paid 300 for an a 2003 Grand Marquis that is the most expensive vehicle I have ever bought at 1500 bucks
 
$3,800. It was a 2001 Saturn SL with 88k miles in summer of 2007. It had a manual transmission. Had to teach myself stick before I could even drive it. Drove it for about 4yrs until it hit around 135k and then I donated it because it had a bad timing chain, and a slew of other issues.
 
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