Have you considered a new vehicle? I have no idea how old you are, but you have to certainly be older than I or at least close to my age. I only assume this by the way you take and express your self and your knowledge of things. Im 22 years old by the way.
Getting a new or fairly new car isnt hard at all. At 18 years old I had my hands on a fairly new Jeep (a 2000 Grand Cherokee Limited). The Jeep before that was a 1993, but thats besides the point. First time buyer programmers and such make it so easy to buy a car. And you know, car payments are not as bad as every one makes them out to be. I dont know if youre going to school, what your job is, but I think you could probably do it. So if you have to work a few more hours a week, go for it.
At 22 years old Im married, own my own business, have a mortgage and own two new vehicles. Ya, Im in debt up to my ass, but its worth it. I still have money to go out to dinner, to the movies, or buy off road parts with. I did all of this with out my parents help. I had to buy my first Jeep, and any thing else I wanted. So take your 7k or how ever much you want to use to buy a car, and use that for your down payment. You probably wont even need that much.
So you end up with a Chevy Cobalt or some thing. Your payments are low and you can have it paid off quick. Than trade up to some thing bigger with more HP. Thats pretty much what I did. Ya, Id love to have a Viper parked in my garage, but I cant afford such a car. Maybe if I sold the Jeep and the RAM, but that totally defeats the point.
Just food for thought man. Keep us updated on what you find.
In case you are wondering, Ive had several jobs. Some crappy, some good. But they all helped me get where I am now. And no, I never went to college either. Im just a normal every day high school grad whos probably smarter than some. Im ASE auto certified, A+, Microsoft, and Cisco certified. And I still chose to do some thing totally unrelated to auto mechanics or computers.