The first car I bought (post divorce) cost $4000..Toyota liftback...a Peach of a car I drove for 10 years. I was working fulltime, in my 20s with a young son. But, I did not overspend elsewhere. I needed that car in order to get to work!
First car I bought post-1979 divorce was a used Plymouth Duster for $1,000. I bought it from a co-worker. It was white, with blue interior, had three on the column. I don't even remember if it had a radio in it. I bought an 8-track player with speakers for it. Had my mechanic install it all. I don't remember how long I kept it, but I do remember taking my two sons to Disneyworld in it. Sometime during the time I owned it, I took my youngest son to see the Harlem Globetrotters in Syracuse, NY. When we got back to the car, the 8-track player and the speakers were gone.
My 2005 came with a Bose 6-disc CD player. When I traded it in, in 2020, the new car had no player, so I took all the CD's I had, reformatted them to MP3 and put them on a USB stick so I could listen to them in the car. Same thing with my most recent 2022 Nissan Altima lease.