Seriously, I've spent like an hour searching and there appear to be absolutely no used cars in the US or Canada priced at or under $500. In fact, they're not even really close. I can only find a handful of cars under $1000, and they all seem to be parts cars that have major issues that are insurmountable for all but experienced mechanics who happen to have a spare engine laying around.
Am I just searching in the wrong places or what? Where have all the cheap-ass cars gone in this car-mandatory society?
They've completely disappeared thanks to inflation, not even mentioning the damage to the cheap old car market done by cash-for-clunkers
even beat panther platforms are $2k+
I imagine lower than usual demand over covid also means there's a few years where fewer than usual cars entered the used market, both from private owners and rental fleets, which has downstream effects.