I know this question is extremely difficult because of the hundreds of factors involved, but here is my situation:
I'm selling my '02 Civic for $11,900 to get a cheaper car to get my credit cards paid off. It should sell soon so I've really been researching older cars. I'd like to spend around $5,000-$8,000 and in that price range, nice used cars WILL probably have at least 75k miles and higher. I really don't mind miles at all if a car has had the proper maitenance. That '85 Toyota Celica w/ 125k miles I had ran perfectly, but I'd be looking at something along the lines of these cars this time around: 93+ Acura Legend / 95ish Lexus ES300 / 95ish Toyota Avalon/Camry... etc. Many of these cars have 100k+ miles and my family/friends have been saying its absolutely rediculous to buy a 10 year old car w/ 100k miles, regardless of maintenance. They said that if I need a good car for $5,000 - $8,000 I should get a 99ish corolla w/ 60ish thousand miles and be done with it.
I'm obviously going to do whatever I want, but I think a mid-90s Japanese car in great shape w/ proper maintenance would be much more car than a newer / fewer miles Corolla. I tend to also think that the more expensive cars are going to have a better chance of being maintained than cheaper cars (Civic,Corolla,Sentra) that might have been given to college kids or younger adults who would probably neglect maintenance more often than someone with a luxury. Obviously each car will have its own story, but I'm talking more often than not.
I'm selling my '02 Civic for $11,900 to get a cheaper car to get my credit cards paid off. It should sell soon so I've really been researching older cars. I'd like to spend around $5,000-$8,000 and in that price range, nice used cars WILL probably have at least 75k miles and higher. I really don't mind miles at all if a car has had the proper maitenance. That '85 Toyota Celica w/ 125k miles I had ran perfectly, but I'd be looking at something along the lines of these cars this time around: 93+ Acura Legend / 95ish Lexus ES300 / 95ish Toyota Avalon/Camry... etc. Many of these cars have 100k+ miles and my family/friends have been saying its absolutely rediculous to buy a 10 year old car w/ 100k miles, regardless of maintenance. They said that if I need a good car for $5,000 - $8,000 I should get a 99ish corolla w/ 60ish thousand miles and be done with it.
I'm obviously going to do whatever I want, but I think a mid-90s Japanese car in great shape w/ proper maintenance would be much more car than a newer / fewer miles Corolla. I tend to also think that the more expensive cars are going to have a better chance of being maintained than cheaper cars (Civic,Corolla,Sentra) that might have been given to college kids or younger adults who would probably neglect maintenance more often than someone with a luxury. Obviously each car will have its own story, but I'm talking more often than not.