hey guys, do any of u dudes out there also work as mechanics or used car dealers? i have a 98 ford contour, and the thing has been falling apart slowly since january, and i do not want to throw any more $ into it. ( i can only afford about $5,000, but i am looking to get out of the 90's and into the 2000'S). i have looked on line and at consumer reports. any suggestions? i hear toyotas, hondas, are good. any help at all would be much appeciated. thanks bros! 
It may be a little tough to find a Honda that cheap, they tend to do ok on holding their value. A family member of mine was able to sell a 98 4 door accord for a little more than $5K. Do a search on Autotrader.com for a 2 door civic, I just ran one and it only pulled 1 car under $5k in 50 miles, and it had 179k miles on it
You may want to look at older Jeeps (Cherokees), I don't know what the "official", overall value is like, but I had 2 during high school and college, and both were 8 years old when bought for around $5K. never had a problem with either one even being in the 100-125K mile range...
