[racer]

No LOANS! This needs to be a fun "2nd car" given your age/credit etc.

two general maxims I like to share:

1) All 944s are $10K cars
2) All 911s (in this case, SC/3.2Carerra) are all $20K cars

and a bit of shared and repeated wisdom: The cheapest Porsche to buy is rarely the cheapest Porsche to own.

Not sure I saw you mention where you live and if this car will be your ONLY mode of transport. Do you need working AC? What about when it snows - will you need a second set of wheels? Also, if the car is down, how will you get to work? friend? bus? etc. Might also consider checking insurance rates

If you are going to throw caution to the wind and feel compelled to spend $18-20K on a Porsche, don't. You will need at least 10% to maybe 20% of purchase price to "fix" the items the previous owner overlooked.

high mileage 996 and 964 cars meet this price range. So to will SC and 3.2 Carrera cars as well as the whole 924S/944/968 series cars. Boxsters are another one. Spend some time out here and figure out which models "achilles heel" you can live with.