said by JoelC707:The Cavalier is a good idea and they do seem to be very cheap (many in the $3000 range and lower). The only issue I'm seeing is most are coupes. There are some sedan models but they are few and far between. Considering the 3rd and 4th person riding in the car are kids in car seat/booster, they will need to be in the back. It's a PITA to squeeze back there to buckle those things in let alone buckling in the kids.
The Sunfire seems to be the same way but one listing did catch my eye: 2001 Sunfire, 4dr, runs and drives but started overheating; $950. That's pretty cheap and could be any number of fixable things. But at the same time I had a 95 Ram 1500 that I did everything short of replacing the engine and couldn't get it to not overheat, so it could be more hassle than it's worth.
dont go older than 2003, you are getting into 2.4 l territory, they kept all the bad of the quad 4 and added new problems. i had a sunfire gt 2001, it had the 2.4, got 300 000km but it leaked antifreeze like it was free. i just sold my 03 4 door cavalier for 2500$ it ran great, and like i said the ecotec got ridicoulous gas mileage, better than my sunfire, and they are the same car!