Goal: A Cheap, Reliable Used Car With No Monthly Payments You've just graduated from college. If you're lucky enough to find a job, you'll probably need a reliable ride to get you to work. But the last thing you need if you've got hefty student loans or an otherwise tight budget is another monthly payment. So is it possible to find a decent car for, say, the cost of a down payment on a new car loan? The consumer editors at the auto Web site Edmunds.com say it is-and to help prove that to buyers, they've started a "Debt-Free Car" project. The goal is to assure car buyers that they can find a decent used car for $5,000 or less, without the burden of monthly payments. The trick, of course, is to find a used car that you're not embarrassed to drive, that won't break down regularly and that won't cost you more in repair bills than you would have made in monthly payments. I seem to recall that my own first car after college, a rust-colored Ford Maverick, scored mixed results on that front. So Edmunds has added a 1996 Lexus ES300 with 135,000 miles, bought for $3,800, to its test-car fleet. The final price actually ended up closer to $3,300 because of an apparent error on the seller's part. The site's editors will drive it to and from work, run errands around town and take long trips, with the goal of driving it 15,000 miles in the next year. They'll track the car's fuel, maintenance and repair costs, as well as their experiences driving it on a daily basis. Readers can follow the car's progress on the site's Long Term Road Tests blog. The Edmunds editors found the forest-green car by searching on Web sites like AutoTrader and Craigslist and were able to negotiate the purchase from an independent dealer in Pasadena, Calif. The car's history report (the editors bought a 30-day subscription to AutoCheck, a service that provides vehicle histories using a car's vehicle identification number) showed no accidents and multiple service visits to a Lexus dealer. Before finding the Lexus, they hit some bumps in the road, including some potential Internet scammers, so finding such a car isn't something to try without doing your homework. Edmunds also offers a used-car questionnaire to help you remember to ask the right questions when narrowing your search. Have you ever bought a cheap used car for cash? How did it work out for you?