Best reliable used car for under $10k, fun with good handling?

Get a Ford. We have 3 Fords and we put little money in the cars for repairs. They are very fun to drive. Dont listen to all the garbage ppl tell you bout Fords, they are great cars. Ford Taurus and Ford Fusions are great cars and the Fusion gets excellent gas mileage. and best of all, you aren't giving the foreign companies our money to send to their countries and putting Americans out of work

I'm in the process of asking myself the same question. I've narrowed the choices down to:

- 2002 Nissan Maxima should fall right into that area. With 255hp, available 6 speed transmission, and a 0-60 average of 5.9 seconds its a nice car. Quite reliable too as i've got 194k miles on mine and less than 1,000 per year worth of dealership repairs to keep it running

- 2002 Trans Am is also a great choice. You compromise some reliability and 2 usable back seats for a really nice engine. The LS1 in that car was used in the corvette for 6 years, and is rated at 300+ hp. 0-60 of about 4.8 seconds will get you there quickly.

Stay away from all used Japanese cars since they are very expensive to repair and often need to have parts ordered leaving you with nothing to drive while waiting for parts.

Get a good used Ford Focus or Chevy Malibu.

I would get some sort of Honda. They are super reliable, that is what my first car was and it never broke down! And the Honda Civics are really cute.

Think about some sort of Honda. But I would recommend the Hundai Accent. It's starting price is around 8,000.