Hello /o/. I'm a 20 year old southerner boy who's looking for his first car to buy. I had a 200k+ Taurus hand-me-down, but too much has gone wrong with it for it to be any useful to repair anymore. All of my motor supports are bad, my catalytic converter is dead, 3 tires are flat and I need to replace the battery, plus it's been hit by deer I think four times. I recently came into a lump sum of exactly $5,000 (weird how it's exactly the amount for the guide.) I had some noob questions and I hope I won't get bullied for this, but… I was thinking that I should buy an old 6th gen Civic because it could be neat for use with my family, it could fit all four of us, plus I could go full autist on it someday and smack some shitty turbocharger on it, and change the transmission and give myself an interesting education about how it's done in the meantime. But then I was reminded that if times are rough for me, perhaps I should look to the future instead of the present. Sure, driving a Civic would be fun, but perhaps I need a minivan or a van. I was thinking of using a car every day for when I go to work, but I have plans to go to a school perhaps. I have a few job offers in front of me, and I could lend the car to my mother for her to use in the suburbs if I am in the city and only using my feet to get to class. And, of course, the final solution is to 14/88 and have many, many children. I was wondering if it would be financially viable to buy a van and keep fixing it until I have children and use it for transporting them. Basically, my question is, would it be useful to buy a van first if possible, or is the price range of $5000 for most vans not useful enough for keeping it the entire time that I am raising a family of my own? Perhaps due to how vans over 100k or so have issues? (I don't know if they do or not, I am from a place of ignorance.) And if I do buy a van, which would be the most useful for containing children or my aging family? I was really thinking that the E Series or some such would be what I would look for due to the passenger numbers and size. I am not exactly sure what kind of model I should look for if I want it as big as possible, possible vehicle ugliness notwithstanding. I will write this information down so I remember, of course. Or, should I go for what my heart beats for, and get a Civic and actually enjoy myself? I would try to get some money and do a trade-in for some more dough later along the line for a van and a civic. Sounds like a good combination for my adulthood. I've already got houses and land, from my parents and grandparents, a garage and an outside, so I have no lack of housing and I don't think I'm looking to move soon, so I don't have to take that into account along the line thankfully. I apologize for the long ass blogpost, thank you very kindly if you reply.