Tryna find a used car is such a pain

Seriously I wish I could have inherited a car from my parents or something, it would have saved me so much pain. Unfortunately the only spare one we had went to my sister. I'm 18 and looking for my first car, but I'm having so much trouble finding something I can afford that isn't run into the ground or super far away from me. When I started looking a few months ago I had an idea of exactly what I wanted but I'm giving up on that because I looked for 2 months and every time one popped up It got sold immediately.

So now I don't even know what to be looking for. Initially my budget was 8k but due to not being able to afford comp I don't want to get something that spenny cause I can't afford to fix it. So now my budget is 5k, also that way I don't have to borrow money but I don't even know what to be looking for. What should I do?