I'm looking around getting an idea of what I want to move over to once I get moved, and I'm thinking somewhere in the range of a 2010-15 compact of some brand or other. I'm not picky as to goodies -- hell, I could make do just fine with the base model as long as it has air conditioning and either bluetooth or an aux port (I've got a bluetooth dongle I could just perma-attach to it) -- I hear Florida summers are brutal and hearing my podcast/audiobook and navigation through the car speakers is always helpful. I hear good things about Toyotas and Hondas but I am concerned about price -- I'm targetting about $2,500 down or so and roughly $300/mo as a payment. Ideally I'd not go over 30 months on the term so I'm thinking my budget is around 10 grand total (doubtless I'll be approved for more if I want it, they salivate over people with good credit). I can drive a standard, though I'd need an adjustment period to get timing down again, I'm out of practice. Cruise control would be nice but I'm in that budget range where I feel like I should just take what I can get, and I'd take something a little newer or a little better shape without it over one with. Disk brakes are preferred -- I hate working on drums but I don't mind to do my own brake work to save a little money overall.
Another option I could look at is catching a new Kia Optima at their model-year-end closeout, they apparently heavily discount them to get them off the lot and I could get a 10y/100k-mi warranty, which is worth thinking about with how little I joyride -- in two years driving I've only just now put 10k on the odometer of my Maxima, though how much of that is just me not wanting to leave the house and how much is me being scared to drive through town lest something go wrong I'm not sure. I imagine I probably would either get the max of the time term or close to out of it assuming my habits and tastes don't significantly change -- even allowing for a doubling of my total current yearly mileage.
As for why I'm not really looking to buy outright, I don't think I can gather enough together quick enough to do it that way or I would at my range. I'm going to need a car probably within a month or two of getting down there, and if I've got to get a loan anyway, I may as well get a newer, hopefully more reliable vehicle with some semblance of a warranty instead of getting a car loan at the bank, getting taken for a ride on a piece of crap and never see the end of the problems and sinking more and more money into it like with my current car.
Bitter? No, I'm not bitter, I'm just not looking to deal with that nonsense again if I can help it at all.