Where to buy a cheap and reliable car?

Hi everyone,

I have a friend who is in desperate need of a car. Her car at the moment has a major oil leak and it's not worth fixing as there are several other issues with the car. As far as buying a car with cash, she doesn't have much. I think 3k is even pushing it as she has 1k saved and the other 2k she would get from selling her car to like CarMax (quoted $1800). She could afford monthly payments under 300 tho.

She's tried Facebook Marketplace & Craigslist but it seems like everything's stupid expensive or seems scammy. A huge issues is that half the people there will list a price of lets say 1.5k and then say "thats just the down payment. the car is 10k"

Any suggestions on where to buy a cheap reliable car?