A manual transmission and good old hand-cranked windows drive the price down, and I've never had a normal manual transmission need more than $600 in repairs.

Pretty much every area has at least one mechanic with some beaters he got stuck with and fixed up. $1200 seems to be the normal price around here for something butt ugly that runs great. If you thought the Plymouth Reliant was ugly when it was new, you should see what these guys sell