Update: I got myself a 2022 Subaru Impreza with 15k miles! I test drove it out of chance today and the drive was so buttery smooth, great package, and overall just felt right. It may have been more than what I wanted to spend (27k), but I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m buying in a bad market with no end in sight. I can’t keep acting as though there’ll be a crystal ball moment where the news is like, “car supplies will be back to normal in x months” and convince myself that it’ll be soon. Case in point: I can get a baseline 2023 Impreza for 1k more but that’ll be 4-6 months of waiting, with not as many features as the current one.

I aim to pay more than is required per month, and set that auto payment on a bi-weekly schedule so that I can pay it off as soon as possible. The silver lining here I guess is that I get to build my credit + a car that I fell in love with in the next 10 days.

Thanks everyone for your great advice!!