Good Bye Explorer... Hello New Car

It's a sad day at the preppy house dear friends... This morning I took my car in for some basic maintenance... only to find out that my perfectly cute, paid off, wonderful SUV that I was planning on driving "until it died." Has met an untimely end, and is apparently a death trap! My sweet car spent a few years driving on the over salted roads of upstate New York. Unbeknownst to me the road salt wreaked complete havoc with my car, and more than a handful of necessary parts have in the words of our mechanic "disintegrated" and he's not joking. He let us look under the car and parts that are supposed to be connected are just gone, and the whole car is completely rusted :( 

Basically, he said I was a few weeks away from a very dangerous accident. I spent most of the day crying and looking for new cars. Crying because I really, really loved my car. I bought it after having a major accident in New York... I totaled my car in a six car pile-up...  The explorer was an unexpected purchase and I spent the next two years busting my behind to pay the explorer off. In December of 2008 I paid of the car and have been living sans car payment for a cheerful 10 months... until today :( 


I loved my car, it was my first major purchase as a responsible adult, she's never needed any work. I sort of feel like this car represented a major achievement in my life. Having it paid off made me feel like a financially secure adult. Today, that sort of crumbled. 


Buying a car was so far off of my radar. I've been budgeting and trying to save for medical school, so I don't have any money set aside for it, and I just used the good majority of my savings to make my first tuition deposit. I have to buy a car on Monday because my grandparents are coming to visit next weekend and I'll need a vehicle to drive them around as they aren't renting a car. Phew... the weight of this unexpected expense just makes me want to crawl into bed and hide. I know that in 8 months I will be living on student loans and the idea of taking on car debt in addition to that makes me cringe!


So for now, I am begrudgingly car shopping. At the moment I'm leaning towards a 2006 Honda Civic... What do you all drive? What used cars do you recommend?