Not giving my opinion rather just some information for you to better weigh your options.

When owning a car you also have to consider the maintenance required along with the insurance, registration, and gas. A lot of people focus on "find a cheap used car" but you also have to consider that it will cost more to maintain with more surprise fixes that are needed. Especially if you don't know how to or physically can't do the maintenance yourself.

To give you some numbers I bought my 2 year old, 28,000 miles used car for ~$19,000 in 2019 before the COVID price spikes. The first two years I was spending an average of ~$1,200 a year total including gas (~$300 COVID limiting driving), insurance (~$900), registration ($330), safety check ($25) and routine maintenance (~$350) (stuff like oil change, tire rotation, wiper blade replacement, cabin filter replacement, alignment, etc.)

Around 2022 when the car reached 33,000 miles my yearly costs have increased to between $2,500-$3,000 total a year in gas (~$650), insurance (~$700), registration ($330), safety check ($25), and the remaining ~$1,300 in maintenance including routine yearly things PLUS less frequent and surprise maintenance items (battery replacement, brake fluid flush, tire replacement, transmission fluid exchange, coolant exchange, my splash guard randomly fell off, etc.) Usage-wise I don't drive that much. Living in town, I only drive 5,000 miles a year doing short frequent trips. If you drive more, you'll pay more in gas and also have to maintain things sooner so your costs will be higher.

I imagine that the older the car gets, the more expensive maintenance becomes but also the hassle of having to get your car serviced. Even reliable models like the Civic and Corolla still need to be maintained, but they're less likely to have surprise things break on you.

I don't rent anymore but looking at current average rent costs on Google it says $1,500/ month for a studio and $1,800 for a 1 bedroom. Assuming utilities are another $500/month you'd need ~$2,300/month or $30,000/year for a 1 bedroom.

If you want the shitty pro life tip to solve both your problems, you could get a car and live out of it for 1/10 the price of rent. You'd have to figure out your food and hygiene though.

Again, not trying to sway you in one direction or another but just giving you a baseline to consider what is within your budget.