I kept dreaming of the $2000 Corolla that I had discovered on Craigslist, even though I had convinced myself that it was too good to be true and therefore probably a scam.

Finally, I gave in and responded to the ad. I scheduled an appointment with the owner for the following day. I was to meet him in North Attleboro, where he lived. Since I didn’t have a car, I planned to take the commuter rail and meet the owner at the station.

I had scheduled other appointments the same day. One was with the owner of a 1988 Nissan Maxima. It was less than $1000, but was it really worth it? I realized that it was too old a car.

Another appointment was with the owner of a 1993 Mitsubishi. He was selling his car for $2895. If I could get the Toyota Corolla for $2000, I would have $895 in pocket money for other things.

You were probably waiting for this picture. Here it is, the beautiful photo-picture of the 2005 Toyota Corolla that I “built” online on the official Toyota Corolla website.

Isn’t it cute? If there are any generous people out there reading this, well, it would be such a nice present.

The official Toyota Corolla website has a tool where you can build your own 2005 Toyota Corolla online. You pick the model, then the options, then the color, then the accessories, and finally you get a summary sheet with the price.

I tried building the lowest-priced Toyota Corolla possible, because I don’t have that much money at the moment anyway. I chose the cheapest model without any accessories.

The final price? All together, $15,190. That breaks down into $14,580 for the cheapest model, plus $70 for the options (”options” is a misnomer here because you don’t have a choice with the model I chose), plus a $540 delivery, handling, and processing fee.

It’s still too much for me to afford right now, but anyway I am very happy with my 1994 Corolla which I bought used and paid off all at once.

I was browsing the Craigslist car rental ads multiple times a day when I found the best deal imaginable: a 1994 Toyota Corolla for $2000.

The owner said that he had to get rid of it by October 30, 2004. That sounded suspicious to me. I have read before that if someone is pressuring you to buy something because they have to get rid of it by a certain date, it should set off red flags and you should be extra-careful.

The car was in Attleboro. I lived in Boston at the time. I wondered if it was worth the hour-long commuter rail trip all the way out to Attleboro to see the car.

Probably not, I figured. It’s probably a lemon and a scam.

I decided to forget about the Craigslist posting and continue searching the listings for other cars.

I found out here that rearranging the letters of “Toyota Corolla” gives you “Loyal to car, too.”

What a great discovery! Is this common knowledge? I have loved Toyota Corollas for years and can’t believe that I only learned this now.

“Loyal to car, too” is the perfect description of a Toyota Corolla owner. Every Corolla owner I know loves his or her car.

I guess that to people who feel indifferent about Toyota Corollas, the anagram could be changed to “Too loyal to car.”

Where do all the good, inexpensive used cars go?

Craigslist, of course. But you have to be careful and watch out for yourself. There’s a lot of worthless junk out there. There are a lot of cars listed that may seem good at first, but that are completely burdened by hidden problems. You could say that they are lemons without a return policy or protection by the law.

If you’re buying a used car on Craigslist, look for honesty in the sellers. What are their families like? Where do they work? Yes, this may border on being intrusive, but if you are paying them $1000 or more, you need to know this information.

If you do your research, you will find that Craigslist has better deals on used cars than any used car dealer does. I saved a ton of money that way, and I got an awesome little Corolla out of it too.

After some searching that turned out to be random for the most part, I felt lost.

Then there was a lucky turn of events. Someone was giving away an entire bag of old Consumer Reports magazines. I claimed them, not expecting much, and then found that the bag included two issues devoted to cars.

What a jackpot I had found! I looked through the rankings and then decided that I should really buy only a Toyota or a Nissan. Those two seemed to be the most reliable used car brands.

Do you happen to have a photo of a 1988 Toyota Corolla? Ideally it would be grey/silver, but any other color would be good too.

I want to post a photo here to show what my mother’s car looked like, but the car no longer exists, unfortunately. If you’d like, I can even advertise your Corolla in a post here if you are trying to sell it.

In the meantime, I’ll start watching the streets in my area with my digital camera, waiting for the right photo opportunity.

The grey Corolla was my mom’s car. She bought it brand new in 1988. At the time, my dad still had a giant white Dodge from the 70s.

My mom needed the grey Corolla for two main reasons:

• To get to work
• To pick me up from elementary school

One car was no longer enough, because my dad’s work hours did not match up with hers, nor did they match up with my school hours. So we became the classic two-car American family.

Chilton’s Toyota Corolla 1988-1997 Repair Manual is a book that I wish I owned.

I currently use the Internet as my main source for car repair info. My father is my secondary source, of course. Whenever he comes to visit, we take a look under the hood of my green Corolla.

One day I’ll buy that Toyota Corolla repair manual, though, and then I’ll become the expert of the family.