When I upgraded from my ancient Caravelle, I research and Honda Civics tend to have the best resale value overall, even older high-mileage ones.
I got mine - a 2004, 4door automatic baseline, no power windows/doors - for ~$6500 in Jan 2009, it had $160k miles on it but was otherwise in pretty awesome condition.
I've had to get one major not-routine repair done (engine needed some serious work recently, due to having 200k miles on it now; ended up costing around $1500) and of course belts and other routine stuff, but I would still consider the car to be an excellent investment. I should be able to resell or trade it in (if I did so in the near future) for around $4-5k based on current craigslist conditions. I'm in Portland OR market though, not sure about your area's pricing.
no subject
I got mine - a 2004, 4door automatic baseline, no power windows/doors - for ~$6500 in Jan 2009, it had $160k miles on it but was otherwise in pretty awesome condition.
I've had to get one major not-routine repair done (engine needed some serious work recently, due to having 200k miles on it now; ended up costing around $1500) and of course belts and other routine stuff, but I would still consider the car to be an excellent investment. I should be able to resell or trade it in (if I did so in the near future) for around $4-5k based on current craigslist conditions. I'm in Portland OR market though, not sure about your area's pricing.