Miata
 

It will be used as a daily driver so no extreme race cars or rust buckets.

Hoping to find something within about 300 miles of Philly, PA area.
Must be able to safely drive it home
Under $7k

Must have clean title

for that kind of money
 

I would do some looking further south even texas. For 6/7 grand you can find a really nice miata .I guess it depends on the year you are wanting for that price
You can find a really nice NA for an easy 4500 or less
I understand the distance but it would sure be a nice vacation drive back

I will travel more. Just hoping to not have to. However, I won't spend $6-7k on one. Everything I see for $4,500 or less is beat to hell and/or has really high miles.

can buy cheaper I bet
 

Too far to travel for 138k miles

I understand
 

It is going to be hard to find a car without a lot of miles on them.
There are a few of them around with an 80,000 range on them running in the 5500 range or less
I just sent the one as an example of what you can find in the area
You can search a lot of states between you and texas to find one in great shape
I guess I missed something in your post I thought it said under 6-7 grand
so thought for that much it would be worth looking further south so you do not have near the rust problems the further south you go and there are a lot more to pick from so a cheaper price
I would think finding a really good one in your area would be hard to find and few at all where in Texas/Okla or states close rto you they are more of them
A car with 138,000 that has been wel maintained and wear itmes changed out may be a far better car than one with 80,000 miles nad has not been taken care of
Anything less than 100,000 that is in really top shape is not likely to sell for less than 5 grand or so look at some of the ones for sell on here nice cars and decent prices

Must have manual trans

How about traveling to the Chicago area for one with no rust from Phoenix? It is set up for track but can be a daily driver too. Here is the link to my friend's Miata ad anyway

Mazda : Other Base Convertible 2-Door in Mazda | eBay Motors

I'd have to dump too much into it to get it where I want it for DD