For me it has everything to do with that balance between reliability, price point, risk and my skill-set as a fairly inexperienced shade-tree mechanic. Sometimes I buy expensive-ish (I ain't rich) and low mileage/new when it comes to a vehicle I just don't completely trust for whatever reason and sometimes I'll go high mileage a cheap if my research shows a history of reliability.

There is no one answer that covers everything. I would never have considered buying my VX at 121K miles if it hadn't come with such good service history. At the same time, I sold my "new" 99 Firebird in 2001 because it was about to go out of warranty (lost a transmission and 2 rear ends on that V6 manual!) It's all about the warm fuzzies.

MMMMMmmmmm, Karmann Ghia - YUM / Schwinnng!