The Nissan Versa sedan base model still has crank up windows, manual door locks, and manual transmission. It’s the cheapest new car you can buy in the US.
I seem to have bad luck with Nissans. Lost a connecting rod on the highway. The engine blew up doing 80 mph. Then I started my other Nissan to see it peeing transmission fluid in my driveway. They were both Altimas though. Maybe that was why.
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Nissans have poor reliability ratings on CR.
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Buying used, make sure you’re not getting a “flood car.” There have been lots of floods for the past year or two.
Last Friday (Dec/21) Sanibel Island, FL, near Mustangman in Fort Myers had a mini-Tsunami! I’m not sure how much damage cars suffered there, but I wouldn’t want my car in that salt water.
CSA
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We live in rural Southern Maine. The most we have to worry about here is rusty vehicles.
I was going to suggest the Nissan Versa as well. I think this is the ONLY new car with crank windows. You can get a manual as well which I prefer. I hear LOTS of complaints about these things starting to fall apart at relatively low mileages though such as oil burning and piston slap starting at around 40,000 miles. I also just hear they start falling apart like the interior, etc. I ended up buying a Mitsubishi Mirage as my gas getter. It is also one of the cheaper cars and they often have sweet deals on these. Don’t bother getting an upgraded model as you can get a MUCH BETTER car for the amount of money they cost. You cannot get crank windows on the Mirage but it does come with a manual transmission. It isn’t loaded with creature comforts but seems to hold up pretty well. Mine gets driven on gravel roads all the time and all the bouncing hasn’t caused it to fall apart yet. There have been relatively good reports from owners about long-term reliability as well.
Personally I would probably also check out the Kia Rio as the base model with a 6 speed manual (NICE!) can be had for around $12,000 with some sales. Also remember you can find a few used ones if you can’t swing new right now. The Kia Rio is a pretty nice little car for as little as it costs.
I would normally say to change the head gasket but this car has a lot of other things needing work. The GM Daewoo cars of this era were not exactly the best either. My GF had a Suzuki Reno/Forenza which is also a GM Daewoo rebadge. It is basically an oversized Aveo if you ask me and had many of the same issues. I guess head gaskets were a known problem because that was what did her car in. Apparently the factory gaskets were junk. As with your car, there were suspension issues and other problems already needing work. I told her it was time to send this car down the road and get a new one.
Also read: https://www.autonews.com/article/20050815/SUB/508150704/gm-daewoo-quality-problems-rile-suzuki
Flood cars get distributed all over the country by the trainload/truckload and become used cars.
The folks in areas that flood who lost cars have to be careful of buying rusty replacement cars from places like rural Maine. 
CSA
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Flood damaged vehicles are sold through several auctions and titles washed so these things show up all over the country.
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Thus far you have received rather excellent advice from the folks here. If you are looking at a Corrolla with a manual trans thats just about as reliable as it gets really and Kudos to you for wanting a manual and why…
I know you have concerns about electric windows but honestly that is not a real worry at all, the electric drive works wet or dry and in an emergency the window can be broken, so… the others covered this fairly well actually. These criteria are not really something from which to base a car purchase off of…only way you might be able to get that setup is if you ordered the vehicle new and specified what you wanted and even then you might encounter resistance because no one wants those vehicles with that setup often or ever. The likelihood of you just finding one in the wild are not good.
So… buy that Toyota with the manual… and try not to fret the window system too much. They sell key chain emergency escape products to help mitigate this concern.
The “thoughts seem to indicate chuck it”? For a car that’s not even 10 years old, with less than 200,000 miles? I realize the Chevy Aveo is not held in the highest regard, but I think the car itself is a lot less “disposable” than peoples’ attitude toward it. In fact, I don’t believe it is any worse than other economy cars from the 1990s to 2000s.
What I do believe is that the kind of people who buy these low-cost cars, often shopping monthly payment rather than total cost of ownership, fail to properly maintain them, and run them into the ground prematurely. I can remember similar cars from the past, such as the Ford Escort, Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance, and Chevrolet Corsica. These were actually decent cars, if properly maintained, and there were millions of them on the road. Now, they are rare, even in junkyards, and when I do see them in a junkyard, they really only needed minor repairs or routine maintenance, which the owner was too cheap to pay for.
Too many people fall into the trap of “my car is only worth X amount, so I’m not going to pay for anything other than oil changes and maybe brakes and tires” and then when it needs something more, off to the junkyard it goes. Of course, the $1000 or $2000 of deferred maintenance which could have kept the existing car alive gets replaced with a loan payment of hundreds of dollars a month plus costly full-coverage insurance for a period of many years. People still think they’re being “smart” and “saving money” doing this.
The future is electric, so why compromise by settling for old technology? For example, if you have access to a power outlet where you live (preferably 220 volts, but 110 will do), you can get a clean, used Nissan Leaf for around $7-8000. Its range would work for you (80-85 miles), much cheaper to operate than internal combustion engine, and fun to drive.
i think they got it new? 1st post sort of infers that. i know, i make guesses sometimes. maybe it was 1yr old and they got it for 8k? now they want a cheaper car vs buying another new car. is a 8k, 2011 corolla better than their current car? maybe.
I bought the Aveo “certified” used at 3,000 miles. When I was pregnant with my firstborn. So the car was basically new. Personally I would think that just getting the work done on it would be cheaper but there are also the unknowns of if this car is going to be reliable after I put the work in it.
A friend of mine sold a 2004 Corolla with manual windows & automatic trans recently, so that configuration remains available. On CL right now (in my area) here’s some examples of used cars with manual transmissions.
2003 bmw, $3200
2007 Honda civic, $8000
2006 Saturn ion, $3200
92 Civic, $1400
2014 Ford Focus, $5000
Toytoa Matrix , looks fairly new, $3000
Of those I’d go for the Civic. Surf over to craigslist.com, click on “cars and trucks for sale”. You can specify the price range, the transmission type, etc. Can’t sift the results by power windows or not though.
I’m with you though, I much prefer a manual trans and I don’t like power windows. I assisted the same friend to buy a new car and from what I see the power windows are pretty much mandatory now. When I would ask the salesman to show us a car with roll-up windows they’d usually just go away … lol …this turned out to be a good way to make the salesmen to go away if they were bothering us. “I want manual windows”: Salesman, gone , usually after issuing a little insult 
My solution for this problem is to fix my existing cars, both are over 25 years old. Imperfect, but they both run well. And no power windows.
Yes Cavell stole the words right out of my mouth. Again…they sell escape key chain products to get throught the window if need be… Hope you never need it…but they make them.
One could drive with a window open, I suppose…
and even wear a life jacket…
I’d say a bigger fear should be that of having a drunk, drugged, speeding, suicidal, or otherwise distracted “driver” plowing into your vehicle or some road-rage crazy person attacking with a vehicle or firearm.
To be on the safer side…
CSA
Oh, please. I only buy cars with hand crank windows, and it’s not because I’m worried about driving off a bridge, being caught in a flash flood, etc. I simply do not like power windows (or power seats, sunroof/moonroof, touchscreen controls, etc.) and don’t want the added complexity and risk of costly malfunction that these features bring.
Are you recommending that op replace their 8-year old car with a car that is 26 years old . . . ?!
In theory, I suppose that you are correct.
However, I have owned 5 cars with power seats, power windows and power moonroofs, and those components have never needed repairs on any of those cars, even after as long as 10 years. My current car also has a touchscreen, and–likewise–it hasn’t needed any repair in the 8 years that I have owned it.
So, “practice” can be very different from theory.
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