There's always a bit of luck factor involved, including with "relatively new cars." I know people who got pissed off with their expensive repairs on their rela

There's always a bit of luck factor involved, including with "relatively new cars." I know people who got pissed off with their expensive repairs on their relatively new car and switched to an old beater. The good part about buying older cars is that there's information out there about which parts are likely to fail and when (and you can probably assess the cost of repairs too, which you can then factor in to the price). And if you can take it for a test drive, take a peek under the hood, and check for stamps in the service book, you have a decent chance of weeding out the worst pieces. I can't think of many things that would cost several thousand dollars to repair, except for some of the biggest jobs like gearbox or engine replacement. Good thing that modern engines and gearboxes are quite reliable and it's not common for them to just fail without any signs. Bad clutch can be expensive but I think you should be able to tell when it's about to go. So when you buy an old car for, say, $7k, you're taking some chances and might end up needing to spend a few extra thousand on repairs, but chances are it'll be just fine with routine repairs. That's almost always going to be more cost effective than dropping $15k - $20k on a relatively new Toyota, let alone some more expensive car.