Im an 18 year old planning to purchase soon... I was in the same situation as you but I decided to wait until I had more money saved for a down payment. (10% is a little low)
Make sure that you can easily afford the payments, you don't want to go into college with high monthly payments while concentrating on school. Keep looking around local postings for one that is in good condition, and preferably 1 owner who takes good care of their cars. You can find a good solid s2k for 15k, with somewhat low millage, as long as you don't really care about what color/ color combo you buy. Find out how much you can realistically afford per month, then spend a good amount of time looking for the right car for you according to what you can afford to pay.

Not sure if you've used something like this before, but its very helpfull to see how much you can afford to buy.

http://www.cars.com/go/advice/financing/ca...fordability=yes

Make sure you have enough money to pay for maintenance, (big and small, tires etc.)

What I personally ended up doing differently is getting a college credit card and started building up my own credit score to help get a better loan rate with my parents cosigning.

Goodluck!

 

i'm almost 19 i've worked my living ass off to buy and s2k and own it. Don't let jelous ppl diss on you as long as you work for it they can't say a word.

 

got mine when i was 17, i'm 19 now...I still drive like a d*ck... but i'm a safe d*ck.

 

Make sure that you can afford to own the car, not be owned by the car.

 

got mine when i was 17 too. 18 now, only one at school who has one(even though i dont drive it there often).

 

get one, then take it to a track day or autox after a couple of months, then you can lose control, take out a couple of cones or get a little dirt on the rims and you'll be light years ahead of where you were that morning before you went.

 

I'm in a unique position when it comes to finances. My parents are willing to pay for all necessities (including gas) because I'm a full time student with 4-6 hours of homework a night. They allow me to use the money I generate for whatever I choose. Also, I'm probably going to get a full scholarship to a local university (including a computer) so there's not much opportunity for me to build up credit. I've already done some loan calculations and everything checks out. I benefit from some obscenely low interest rates in my area. The local State Credit Union a mile down the street will do a Used 60 month loan with 5.75%!

 

I got my car when I was 17 too. I've stuck with it ever since. And no, I don't fall into the typical jackass-teenager-driver.

 

17 y/o here . Imo try to find an 03, 03 might be the newest year s2k you can get for around 15k . newer will usually leave you with less problems as more kinks will have been worked out . not to mention 02's and 03's have the glass rear window which is a big plus

 

Avoid the 2000 model year if you like being in control @ all times