Buy a car or a new phone?

Depending on what kind of car you get it can either be a really good purchase or a terrible money pit. Buying from a good dealer pretty much guarantees that your car will run for the next 40k miles under warranty. Buying a cheap car on CL can equal a ton of maintenance that the car would need while you're owning it, sometimes as high as the amount the car was purchased for in case of a drivetrain failure/rebuild. Other times a more expensive car can look good and perform good while you're buying it, but after a month things start to go downhill and make you spend even more money on it. On a rare occasion on CL you can buy a car that does everything and won't break down in the near future. Knowing how to change all the fluids will only save you maybe $350 at max every year, as most of the major fluid changes can be expensive but will only need to be done every 50~70k miles, so they can be spaced out; what I pay for all my general maintenance is around $150 yearly, versus my parents who pay about $500, if they remember to do all of it on time. I bought my car for 3k off craigslist and paid a guy 1k to catch the engine up on every possible maintenance.

A phone is just a phone, you pay $500 and the monthly fee for service and you're golden.

tldr Buy a phone because it's not a big financial responsibility; a car, without a good budget will most likely bring you down and give you unnecessary trouble.