OK, I've been holding off on my 'search' for mother a car until I got the check from Allstate. It arrived today. My cousin 'found' her a car at a used car lot in town. The pictures looked great. Mother said she 'wanted it' (sight unseen of course). I went with my cousin to look at it and it wasn't good. Been wrecked I think, window leaked water, lots of dents, scratches, paint peeling etc. Not quite 'as advertised'.

I am not looking for any real work on anyone's part. BUT, you guys seem to know a lot of people in the US of A and sometimes you guys amaze me at what you know and can find. My real search starts with tomorrow's classified ads.........but I wanted to just throw this out there and see if anyone said "OH YEAH, I KNOW A GUY......" Remember, I have grandkids in 3 diff states, so a drive to get a good car would not be totally out of the question.

My goal.......is to get a car that my 85 y/o mother can drive well and handle well, and which will be serviceable for at least another 30,000 miles or so. We need a small car......(her carport is an 'add on' thing that my Tahoe will NOT fit in.

Specs:
Small car.......a hatchback would be nice, but she had Hundyai Elantra and liked it. Anything small... We found a big Mercury that she can afford, but she hasn't driven a car that size and is not comfortable driving or parking one that size
four doors
color immaterial
good tires preferred, but we can buy tires
not wrecked, and history of car known, if possible
gets great gas mileage
Most we've seen at this price have over 120,000 miles. To me that's a LOT....but cars are doing better than they used to, I realize. But as low a mileage as we can get.
We have a MAX of $4,500 to spend including sales tax, etc.
color immaterial

If you know of one somewhere, or have a family member selling one by chance, or stumble on one.........let me know.

Thanks.