Always buy from a person not a dealer. Look for a model known to be reliable and cheap to fix and maintain. I bought a 95 Ford Ranger for $1,800 and am still driving it 5 years later. I’ve maybe put another 2k into it from oil changes, tires and brakes. People pay way too much for bells and whistles.
Lol yeah there’s always that risk. Feel like you want to find some boomer that’s selling his daughters car that just went to college or something.