New or Used: Condition is King!

Another vote for a Ranger. S10s are in the same league only in features and performance; they are significantly less reliable. I've had twenty-something cars now, spanning most of the possibilities available at the time: American, German, British, and Japanese. A few interesting ones, like an Austin-Healy Bugeye Sprite, a 67 Mustang GT fastback, a BMW 2002tii, and a brand-new 87 Acura Integra. Of the twenty-something, only three of them have had automatic transmissions. After my first ride on a fast motorcycle, performance cars suddenly ceased to make any sense to me whatsoever. Four-wheeled vehicles are strictly for utility now in my book. So I drive a Ranger. It has been, hands down, the most reliable and easy-to-work-on vehicle I have ever owned. I don't quite fit in the standard cab and I don't need an F150, and the best supercab model I could find had the Vulcan (3.0 vs. 4.0 or "Cologne" engine) and a 5-speed. The price was so right that eight years and 60,000 miles later, it has lost only about a thousand dollars in retail value and that's held steady for the last six. The Vulcan is Ford's analogue to the 3800; it's stupid reliable and less thirsty than you would expect. It has given me less trouble than either of the Toyota pickups that preceded it, and it does trucklike things considerably better too. A set of Bilstein shocks and a Hurst shifter make a big difference from the stock units. Two other advantages you will find for a supercab manual Ranger: you can get four bodies in it, but two of them won't be happy for more than a few minutes. That will cut down on the number of friends pestering you to drive them en masse, which is unfortunately one of the biggest risk factors for crashes in your demographic. It will also cut down on the number of friends who want to borrow your truck, because the number of folks your age who can drive a stick is absolutely minimal. This is becoming an anti-theft feature as well. If you go the Grandma/Grandpa car route, the Vulcan does duty in the Taurus as the base engine. These are 300,000 mile engines, though the ancillary components will probably need to be changed before that, and the crank angle sensor (goes where the distributor used to) is prone to failure after 100K miles. Tauri are cheap to buy and cheap to maintain. My girlfriend inherited a '93 Bonneville with the 3800 engine. Ultra low miles, 18,000 in its first ten years. We ran it up to almost 60K and happily sold it as a still-low-miles car. Stuff broke regularly, though nothing that would put you off the road for more than a couple hours. But it never impressed us with a sense of reliability. It was a good engine and transmission wrapped in a thoroughly mediocre shell. But the same can probably be said for anything in this class.

I totally agree that condition is King. Though everyone needs a starting point and when it comes to price there are certain features that tend to be much cheaper in the maintenance category. My own experience with buying an inexpensive ride that was both reliable, fun to drive, and practical led me to forgo the sex appeal factor. I ended up with a 1999 Nissan Altima 5spd. They have terrific engines that both produce enough power to not be boring and mileage to be thrifty (avg 27mpg with a heavy foot). Using a timing chain means that they can be very long lived 300k plus miles are easily achieved if oil changes are regular. The shifter does have a very long truck-like throw, but it's still fun and there are short shifter kits available. Access to the engine is very good and all the parts are easily available. The interior holds up surprisingly well even if they aren't exactly pretty. I only sold mine on a crazy whim to go after something sexier (a BMW convertible). I look back now and see that was a mistake, but one that I learned a lot from. BMW used some pretty weak plastic back in the 90's. It sounds like you're really just looking for a set of working reliable wheels. Good luck with your search!