even if they (at least the yaris and prius from the 00s) drive pretty badly

For a first car at your budget, this should be the least of your concerns. A Yaris or Aygo (or even the Aygo’s Peugeot/Citroen siblings) are perfect first cars. You are not going to get any performance-type vehicle with what you can afford right now, so this should be the last thing you prioritize. If you really want some semblance of performance, find a Peugeot 206 or something.

But the aygos sold here for that price have extremely high mileage (as in 160k+)

How old are you? Any modern-ish car made in the last 20-30 YEARS should be able to achieve 200k miles at the minimum with proper maintenance. Just make sure the MOT is up to date, not falsified by a shitty shop, and you should be fine.

Case in point: my wife’s 2015 Toyota Highlander with 128k miles (206k km) and still drives like new.

Another example: my 2008 Toyota Sienna with 278k miles (447k km). While it’s not the prettiest with patchwork paint from sun damage and parking lots, mechanically it’s damn near perfect with not a speck of rust.

And finally… laughs in a very rusty 487k miles (784k km)

What part of Europe are you in? Because it depends on the parts availability. Toyotas are fine, but at your budget, all the cars start suffering from old. Doesn’t matter the brand. Based on your description of rust, I’m assuming it gets cold and wet where you are.

Edit: 160k km isn’t a lot of distance done. That’s like a 6 year old car where I’m from, but I’m assuming you live in a city and I’m assuming lots of people practice extended service intervals so it’s a lot rougher on them.

03/MK4 Golfs have oddball plastics and have stuff fail like the headliner. Also radio codes (radio locks out if the battery is disconnected due to anti theft measures). If you do buy a golf or other VAG product, get a VW specific scan tool, like a rosstech hex v2 or an OBD-Eleven. Highly recommend, super helpful with maintanence. There’s other specific scan tools for other vehicles, but VCDS (needs hexv2 and a laptop) lets you do a lot of neat stuff, and its probably the most indepth tool a user can buy outside of dealership level stuff out of most makes of cars. I don’t think there’s an equivalent for Toyota.

I have a VW Passat 2.5 (US specific model) and it’s been pretty good at 260k kms. It has some quirks but it’s not bad. That said the 2.5 07K (Second gen) is one of the more reliable engines VW made, right after the 1.9 TDI ALH. (Only way you can get this engine is buying a car imported from the US. They do exist but they’re not super common and they’re more expensive than the euro counterparts.

Basically, I divide issues into three groups. Vehicle is suffering from old Vehicle got damaged by user error Vehicle has a specific fault/quirk to that model of vehicle

Issues can usually be grouped into one of the three groups, sometimes it’s a combination of both.

If an issue is in the first or third group, is it easily remediated and does it impact a vehicle inspection.

If it’s in the second group, is there more damage than you think.

Edit 2: I forgot about displacement tax

Go to the local scrap yards and see what’s easy to get parts for. Look online and make sure the cars you find don’t have serious defects.

My Toyota work truck had 275,000 miles and it worked great, and was treated like shit all it’s life. 160k just isn’t that bad. My car now has 160k, and I’m fine and confident driving it daily

160k km is nothing for any car. why do you think it’s extremely high? anyway, basic rule is to avoid germans if you are not a mechanic. japanese brands are reliable and they are usually serviced better because they don’t chew a hole in the owners wallet

Any Toyota or Honda civic that was maintained and does not have turbo is a solid choice.

I couldn’t get a decent car under 150k miles at that price 5 years ago. Used markets can vary but you might have to lower your standards. I would go looking for an old civic that was decently cared for.

If it’s a 1.9 tdi Golf they’re very reliable. Can easily do 400k+, have seen double that before. 1.4 petrol I’d avoid. Can’t beat Toyota for reliability though.

The answer is always Corolla. Good out to 400,000 kms.

Do they still make opels? Those were good last I heard.

VAG engines and gearboxes are true minefield. Search! Also i’d suggest 2500€ car + 1000€ on deep maintenance, tyres and first surprises.

Whether that’s 160k miles or kilometers, I would expect that car to last for quite a long time if its a true Toyota. I just sold my '13 Camry that was pushing 240k miles and it never had any issues and was only sold because I have a long commute and wanted to pass the car off to someone who could enjoy it for a long time rather than me running it completely into the ground in just a couple more years.

Now, I’m not familiar with the Aygo and it looks like it was developed jointly between Toyota and Peugeot so reliability might be hit or miss compared to purely Toyota built vehicles.

My first car was a golf. If you can DIY it’ll help a lot. Personally they have a reputation that isn’t exactly deserved. I’ve owned German cars and helped maintain Japanese cars. Brakes and oil and such are really a lot cheaper but some of the parts on the Japanese are shockingly expensive in comparison, once you get outside of the “regular maintenance” space.

I have two problems with Toyotas and Hondas. They’re too expensive for their age, and they’re soulless.

I am oversimplifying, but I believe there’s fundamental Philosophical differences between German, American, and Japanese engineering and construction. The Germans build things in a complex manner, often beyond the Pareto Principle. The result is that the thing is marginally superior, but requires regular, scheduled, and often complex and expensive maintenance. The Americans build things with a hammer and duct tape and the thing will work badly much longer than the German product will work. The Japanese build with fine tolerance and simplicity, and assuming not actual abuse and regular maintenance, will outlast them all. But it will be boring. When the business starts cutting costs, they all start to suck.

There is a reason the VW is much cheaper with much lower mileage. The saying goes “payments or maintenance”, and when your initial purchase price is that low, it’s gonna be maintenance. And my God do VAG products have HIGH maintenance costs. Parts are expensive, labor is expensive, and yes they begin having tons of issues around 100k miles/160k km…

Remember your first car is your FIRST. Stop looking at features beyond “does it drive down the road” because at the end of the day, those “nice” features don’t matter to get you places. Later in life when you have more free cash you can start looking at niceties, or even modding the car you already have. Right now you need the most rock solid mechanicals you can get and everything else is secondary.

160k km (?) is not high mileage at all in my mind, especially for Japanese built toyotas. Almost everything I own in the US spread across Chevrolet, Honda, Cadillac and Subaru has more than 200k American miles (321k km) and is more than 20 years old, and while they’ve all needed some wear out maintenance, they all run and drive fine.

You just have to be scrupulous about inspecting whatever you buy. I try to avoid car lots and buy private party sales only. I don’t know how Europe is but US used car lots are wretched hellholes that usually are trying to flip damaged auction or repo cars as quickly as possible with high markups. Have a mechanic you trust do a real inspection to the car before purchasing- getting it up on a lift to poke around underneath, dip fluids, and check for hidden damage is ABSOLUTELY critical.