local: car review?

Are you any good at reviewing a car before purchase? I may have found one that I'd like to buy. I'd rather have someone else also look it over, since my skill last time obviously wasn't as great as I'd hoped.  This car is at David's Auto here in Columbia Heights. I didn't think to write down the long VIN number from the dashboard, but here's what I did get:

• Dodge Stratus SE
• 1996?
• 104,000 miles
• $1600
• estimated 20 mi/ga average

I've been trying to limit my vehicle search to stuff that has gas mileage around 20 mi/ga.  I also want to spend less than $2000.  I haven't had much luck finding undamaged vehicles at auction that I want.  Similarly, my two criteria have eliminated most everything I find posted on Craigslist.  Is everyone dumping their gas guzzlers this year while hanging onto their small economy cars?

I also checked out the possibility of leasing a car for only part of the year.  Way too expensive.  The webpage for Enterprise car rental estimated $3800 for a 5-month lease.  That amount of money would cover the purchase of a used car plus one expensive repair bill.

I rode my bicycle this morning out to two local used car lots.  Honestly, their stuff looks like they bought everything at auction, worked repairs on them, then dropped the cars in the lot without any price stickers or other info posted on them.  Seems lazy to me.  The Dodge that I found above was one of the few to have details on it.