30k is not an expensive car. You're doing great buying used, but that's a low price for a decent new car.

$30k was an expensive car… 10 years ago. The average price for a new car topped $50k last month. $30k in my area would maybe get you a used car, probably two or three years old from a car rental company dumping old inventory with too many miles. The used car market still hasn’t calmed down after the component shortage that nearly halted new car production a few years ago. And since used car prices are still astronomically inflated, new cars can sell for whatever the hell they want and they’ll still have wait-lists.

You should have read the rest, the car is paid off. You can do that if you are responsible with your money. That new car that I bought in 2019 was because I was driving 40k miles per year for work at the time and I needed something reliable after my last car started showing its age and left me stranded a couple times. It had 175k miles on it when I sold it after having 3 water pumps, 2 thermostats, 4 high pressure fuel pumps, a radiator, several cooling hoses, an oil cooler, and a clutch replaced, all done myself. The mid 2000s minis were not reliable cars out of warranty.