I'm going to have to agree with smoe on this.
In my opinion, loans should only be taking out for things that are necessary to live life, like a house, car, medical issues, etc. Yes, one can rent, rather than buy things like a house or a car, but in the long run buying a house is usually better than renting, depending on your life/job.
If you start taking out loans to buy nice things like a better tv, better stereo system at this point in your life, you range the risk of never being able to stop borrowing to buy better things that you really don't need. The reason I say this, is what if something happens that you're not able to pay off the loan, do you really want to ruin your credit because you wanted to modify your car now rather than later. If you ruin your credit it can affect, getting a job (yes, a lot of employers check your credit), buying a house, renting an apartment, buying a car, the list goes on and on. It's much easier to say, I went into debt because I needed a surgery to save my life, rather than I went into debt so my car runs faster and looks cooler.
3,000 dollars is really not a lot of money, this is an amount that you should easily be able to make with a second part-time job, etc. If you can afford to take out a loan, why not just start putting that monthly payment away into your accounts until you have enough to purchase those things you want?
The easiest way I save money is every time I'm about to buy a new CD or a book, I say "no" and write myself a check for that amount and put it into my savings account. I keep asking myself, if I buy this it pushes me $20 away from what I really want. I can always walk down to the library and see what they have that I can borrow.
Loans with low credit and no security (i.e. no house to take over, no car to get back) will cost you a lot.