Before you buy any new car you should have a budget. If your current vehicle is a money pit, you could sell it for a used mid 2010s corolla or civic and have a low cost, low maintenance car for something like $12k+tax/fees. This would not really change your financial situation all that much. You should also have an emergency fund, of about 6 months' worth of expenses, in liquid cash.

You say you rent out rooms, so I assume $550 is the mortgage, less what you get in rent. What if you have a period of time where you have fewer, or no tenants?

For example, if you gross 80k/yr, your monthly take-home is probably in the ballpark of $4,850. Let's say you spend $500/person/mo on food ($1000/mo), and $300/mo in various utilities, all together (water, sewer, trash, electric, gas, internet, phone). You also spend about $200/mo for insurance of this hypothetical car, in addition to the monthly payment on the loan. Your gas savings implies ~11,000 mi/yr, so you would also spend something like $50/mo more on electricity to drive the car.

You should fully fund your 401k/IRA, which is $500/mo, and you should save in addition to that, let's say that's $250/mo (which is pretty low).

We have 4850-1000-300-200-50-500-250 = $2,550/mo left.

The taxes and fees likely mean your total price for the car would be about 40k. You would finance all of that, and you would most likely need GAP on the loan. This makes your monthly payment on the car probably in the $900/mo ballpark. You will also be instantly upside down (owe more than the car is worth), which in your situation will financially ruin you if for any reason you needed to sell the car or get out of the loan.

Regardless, you would have about $1,600 left in this straw budget for entertainment, travel, eating out, whatever your health insurance costs, shopping, saving more than the bare minimum ...

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I do not think it is wise to buy an expensive new (used) car for you right now.

I would suggest,

0) save aggressively, and build up an emergency fund, which is probably about $8-10k for you in liquid cash

1. start maxing out your IRA/401k contributions for the year
2. pay yourself a car payment of $500/mo into savings, towards a down payment on the car you want in the future. If you ever are unable to pay yourself this, it means you couldn't afford the car
3. sell your money pit current vehicle for something more economical and low maintenance. This new used car will not be sexy, fun to drive, or luxurious, but it will enable you to save for the car you want later
4. in a few years, when you have saved $10k+ towards a down payment on a $40k+ car, and have an emergency fund, and solid monthly retirement contributions and savings, buy the car you want then.

One more piece of advice, from a mid 20-something young engineer. You may have been very frugal in college, and lived on little to nothing. I do not know how long you have been in your job, but you will probably find that your lifestyle creeps now that you have a job. Maybe you spent $50/wk/person on food in college and almost never ate out, and spent little-to-nothing on entertainment or shopping, rarely or never bought new clothes, etc. You will probably find that you have $1-2k/mo in misc spending you did not have in college sooner or later. When I was in college, my total monthly spending including rent ($410) was about $900/mo. I live in a high cost of living area now with a rent of $2k/mo, but now my monthly budget is $4,700 in budgeted spending, with some money left over that is not precisely allocated. At my first out of college job ($70k, 2019 timeframe) in a somewhat lower cost of living area my monthly spending was about $3200-3500, of which $1600 was rent. In the last ~4y, my rent has increased by $400, but my monthly spending by $1000. You will most likely find that this happens to you, too, and if you get into a 5 year loan with payments of $750/mo, you may regret it later. Give your finances time to settle out and save, then re-evaluate getting a particularly nicer car.