My advice for what it’s worth (not a lot :-)) is buy the best one you can afford, buying cheap and doing the work yourself almost inevitably costs more in the long run.
I'm well aware that you don't get back what you put in financially but half the fun of owning these cars is tinkering. Not to everyone's taste but I like to do a bit of spannering! But the price must reflect that some work needs doing!
Completely understand your thinking but trust me (and I have owned 2 brand new ones) you will always be tinkering, even a new one, just read some of Dave Wellings superb posts on here. With an older one you have all the benefits of it being none electronic and tamper-proof. Your in for years of fun and project planning. All power to your elbow! I am an old retired and knackered mechanic, just bought a 2012 4/4 and over the last two weeks have probably been working on it for close to 20 hours, at least half of that was sitting in it dreaming.... and that was in between Chemo sessions ROFL.
Cheers
Colin
