OP, something to consider. There are a lot of great cars that have been suggested, but when you get a car past 100k miles, you'll have to be doing frequent repairs. Not necessarily huge fixes, but it becomes a more frequent thing. The types of cars here are listed in order of cheapest to repair to most expensive. Keep this in mind since you've got a limited budget to work with.
-Economy domestics (i.e. Ford Taurus)
-Utility domestics (i.e. Jeep Cherokee)
-Economy imports (i.e. Honda Accord)
-Utility imports (i.e. Nissan Pathfinder, Volvo AWD)
-Luxury domestics (i.e. Lincolns, Cadillacs)
-Luxury imports (i.e. Infinity, Acura)
-Exotics and above(you won't be getting into these)
Spend no more than 8k and save the other 2k for if something breaks. You'll be very glad you have it.