I never said anything about payments, i never had a payment on a single car i have just paid cash outright. I hate payments and the only one i have is on my house. school/work means you need reliable! thats why i said something newer. so what do you want to hear a list of parts that will only hurt the reliability of the car in the long run? why would you spend 1/2 the cars value on suspension? are you going to be auto cross racing? performance mods are a waste because its still not going to be fast with that amount of money. if anything rebuilt it to stock and drive it. look on craigs list in your area i guarantee you will find something in that price range.

*i paid $2,300 for my 99 f-250 and i put $75 into it and its in great shape,
*paid $4,500 for my 05 636 bike that i have never had an issue with,
* 12,000 for my altima (this is a little over your budget) but it had 30k miles and 75k warrantee. my altima 2.5S today is going about $6-7K private sellers and is a great car.
*i have $5,500 into my neon which has almost every aftermarket part i can get for it (performance) and now i cant even get a offer on it wish i had that $$ back

all of my cars today are in your price range and none are 14 years old. dont think im trying to start anything trust me i know, i worked full time and went to school full time i learned the hard way on my 1st car that blowing $$ o n useless aftermarket parts is a waste