When buying, borrowing or stealing a car isn't an option

I hate sharing a plan that smacks of desperation, but sometimes, desperate is just what one needs. So for anyone who is desperate to buy a car but can't, here goes... I had dinner at a restaurant with a relative recently, and when we went out to the parking lot, I didn't recognize his car. It looked strikingly different from what I had seen him driving a couple months ago, which back then looked different than what I remembered him last driving. And that's when he told me that he has been renting cars for the last six months.

His credit score, due to years of inattention and financial struggles, is scotched, and so he can't buy a car, or not without paying an astronomical interest rate. His current car won't drive, and he can't imagine sinking more money into it, to try and fix it. He lives in a town that has city buses, but nowhere beyond the border of his community. He needs a car, and so he finally just made up his mind to rent one.