College Grad: Car Buying Strategy
I (23M) have been out of college for exactly a year now and I am in the market for a used reliable vehicle. I have 37,000 in student loan debt cumulative. I landed my first job in tech about 6 months ago, however due to being in a LCOL area I am at 50,000 gross which sucks but my expenses are also relatively low (rent and all my bills come up to $1000 excluding debt). As a result, I've been able to save up 10k since starting my job as I live well below my means. To the point, I have been struggling with deciding on whether I should I take the risk of buying a cheaper older higher mileage (90k+) vehicle for 10k or under or buy a slightly newer vehicle with more reasonable mileage for (65-85k) for a maximum of 19k OTD. My income supports the more expensive option and I have ran the math that I'd still have enough cash flow to aggressively pay an extra 400-500/mo on my student loan minimums albeit my budget will be tight and it will affect my ability to invest in a Roth IRA. I do expect my income to rise given my career in the next 2 years at most but I am afraid of making a decision that will ruin my plan of being debt free before 30 and building meaningful wealth. Either option I've decided to take out an auto loan with a large down payment (30-40%) max term of 48 months. The used market seems to be cooked from what I'm seeing, is there a clearly smarter decision here?
TLDR; 23M college grad wanting to buy a used car on a modest salary with existing student loan debt. Should I get a beater for 10k or put a sizeable downpayment and get something newer with lower mileage and therefore lower risk?