How much is that Honda Civic in the window?

For the last two months I have been without a car. My poor Dodge Stratus took it's last breath and now my boyfriend has been taking me back and forth to work. I guess if I lived in a big city having a car really isn't a necessity because public transportation in major towns are in abundance. I live in podunk-town USA. Where my place of employment is 25 miles from my home down a dark, winding road. I would ride my bike but I'm a smoker and my boyfriends' afraid I will pass out 3 miles down the road and will have to send out the search parties for me. So I start my most daunting task of USED CAR hunting.  Why is this task so scary? Because like so many people that I know my credit sucks. Credit cards, student loans, and over priced medical bills have left me with a less than stellar credit score. I'm not even sure what it is and I'm afraid to look. I know it's pretty bad when the used car salesman comes out shaking his head and frowning. " There's nothing we can do for you ma'am. Add sigh here. I went to a local dealership where I got my last car thinking, "well I paid off my last car with no problems so maybe they have specials for local returning customers." Nope. Doesn't work that way. Neither does the fact that I have a steady job I've been at for over 5 years or that I've lived in my house for 10 years and I own it and it's paid off. Nope. None of that stuff matters. Haha, don't let them fool ya. I don't why I have to waste the ink it takes to write that stuff on the finance application. Here, give me a sharpie so I can scribble down my credit score on the entire piece of paper because that is all you are looking at, right?  And yeah I guess I sound like a disgruntled broke person trying to get something for nothing. Honestly I'm just looking for something small and economical to drive back and forth to work that I don't have to sell my kidneys on the black market for. It's not like I go in there with my credit score trying to finance a new BMW or Cadillac Escalade.  I can't even get the 2000 Honda Civic with 100,000 miles on it and the window in the back won't go up or down. Not unless I have 3,000 dollars for a down payment which is about half of what the car is worth.  I stopped into a used car dealership yesterday. There were pretty balloons and signs that read, "No money down!", "No credit refused!", "You have a job- you ride!" It was like Disney Land for the broke and car less right? Wrong. The signs were false and only really good credit got you the no money down. I walked out frustrated looking for the local dive bar. I'm not sure why these tactics are used to lure you in just to turn you down when you get your heart set on the cute little car of your dreams and the good deal they think they can get you. All I know is when I finally save up my down payment and get the car I want I will drive by all those places and see the sad faces of the saleman peering out from behind the showroom glass wondering why their cars don't sell. I will be laughing and giving them finger as I drive by.