OP...have you considered buying a “new” used car that is like a year or two old? We recently bought a Kia Sedona minivan this way and saved a couple thousand dollars on it. It also still had the original warranty on it.
We did the same thing two years ago when my daughter needed a car to commute to college. We bought a two year old Honda Civic with low miles that still had the warranty on it and saved thousands over a brand new one.
So far we have not had an ounce of trouble with either car.