My son recently bought a 2000 Civic for $4000 with 92K on it. We had to look pretty hard for a decent car under $5000. It's easy to work on (I've never wrenched on a Honda until now) and runs like a top.
My daughter is currently driving our 95 Camry V6 that we bought new. That thing is bulletproof (see the 'station wagon' thread
). 180K and runs as good as it did when it was new, and doesn't burn a drop of oil (my son's Honda does - one of the drawbacks of buying a used car and not fully knowing the history, even with a PPI)