Regarding gong into debt for a liability... I think sometimes it's the best way to go. DH and I don't have a huge amount of money, and for the first few years we were together, DH's credit rating meant all we could get, was what we could buy with cash - and we didn't have much of that at all after paying dead rent and all the other bills. Our first two cars were absolute pieces of crud, but we couldn't do any better - private sales are great if you manage to find a good one, but around here people seem to think it's reasonable to ask $10k for a 20-year-old car that needs another $5k (minimum!) spent on it to get it on the road. We couldn't afford the costs of travel to chase up better deals down south. We paid cash for our first two cars, but had to spend even more money on keeping them running and in roadworthy condition, and they were on their last legs and had to be resuscitated quite a few times - sure, a car's a car's a car, but when you're relying on it to get to and from work (public transport in this town consists of expensive and unreliable taxis and a bus or two during school hours - DH works much longer hours than 8-4!), and dependent upon it in cases of emergency or need that car to safely handle a 1600km round trip to visit family at Christmas... well a privately-purchased bomb isn't good enough.
I had absolutely no qualms about going into $17k of debt to buy our VZ - it was two years old (compared to our first two, which were 20 and 15 years old respectively), had a full history provided, came with a fantastic warranty, and was (and still is) in brilliant condition. It's never so much as hiccupped on us, drives beautifully and will last us another 10 years if we treat it well (which we certainly do). We own it outright now, but even if we didn't, we would be eternally grateful for the chance to buy a reliable family car through a reputable dealer who is happy to help us out if we have any issues, rather than having to take our chances with a private seller who could lie to us about the car's history or condition, and risk paying out big $$ for something that turns out to be an absolute lemon. I'd go into debt over and over again in order to have the peace of mind of knowing that, while not flashy or fancy, the car I'm driving is in good condition and is going to get me where I need to be, when I need to be there.