Automotive Forums

My boyfriend and I have spent the last two weeks visiting car dealerships in Arizona. We have a limited budget and are looking for a car for no more than 200 dollars per month for no longer than 72 months..His credit score is below average (648). We've pretty much narrowed down our search to include Chevy Aveos and Coblalts and Kia Rios (2006 or 2007). So far, no one has been able to get us into our budget range. We found an '07 Kia Rio with around 30,000 miles on it for 11,600. (Kelley Blue Book suggested retail value is 12,155). So that's a good start..
We told the dealership that we wanted to do financing through them to see what they came up with for payments. They told us that the best they could do was $218/ month for 78 months. They told us the interest rate would be around 12%. With everything included (tax, interest, registration, title fee, etc) this comes out to be around a 17,000 purchase!
-Is this a big rip off or is our budget really too low for a car at this price? Any advice would be appreciated..
Thanks