Piece of garbage car, vs reasonable car.

Piece of garbage car, vs reasonable car.

Hi all, Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm 29 years old, on 80k per year at my full time job. I also have a side gig which nets me an extra $200 a week or so which helps with the day to day things. I've been horrible frugal for the last few years, and I'm starting to consider splurging on a slightly nice car, however being held back by my cheap mindset, which is telling me that it's a bad idea.

Some extra info about my situation... I have three properties. The one I live in (which has two housemates currently paying 70% of the mortage payments) And two investment properties, which are negatively geared, however are both tennented with reliable tennents which pay on time. Currently have around 5k saved, which admittedly is not much, due to the expenses occurred around buying the last rental property. I save around $150 per week (again, not much with the current intrest rates) And in between all 3 properties, have equity of around the 420k mark.

Basically I'm borrowing a relatives car currently, due to my old one dying a while ago, and will need to purchase a new one in a month or so.

Do I buy a shit box? Or do I splurge a little more and spend 20k or so, and get something second hand, but nicer that I'll enjoy, however would be on a lease? Or somewhere in between? Would appreciate any thoughts on it. Cheers.