When my older sister turned 16, my parents bought a 1981 chevette off my aunt.
It was a light tan and had power nothing, tons of miles, but it got both me and my sister through high school and then held up until we got our first jobs and bought .... better...cars:
Mine was a 1987 Ford Tempo
I bought it at an auction in 1994 for $1250. All it needed was a $40 water pump and it was good to go. I drove that car until I totaled it on the way to work one morning. Until then the only thing it needed was the usual expendables (fluids, filters, tires, brakes, etc).