In my experience middle of the range second-hand cars have either been driven hard or were unreliable and thus for sale. Of course, it depends greatly how much

In my experience middle of the range second-hand cars have either been driven hard or were unreliable and thus for sale. Of course, it depends greatly how much driving you are planning on and the sorts of conditions. I have had the best experiences buying new and keeping the car for 10+ years. Of course, I do a lot of research to discover the sorts of problems that are common for the models that I am interested in. I find Japanese mid-sized cars the best for my purposes, specifically Toyota. Buy the most basic model with the least amount of fancy electronics. And avoid CVT like the plague.