We’ve bought used cars for a long time. In 2016, I bought my 2014 Ford Expedition with 24k on the clock. Saved a bundle. It was the last year they put V8s in Expeditions (the V6 feels anemic and always struggling).
My wife bought her 2014 Mercedes GLK in 2015 from the dealer. It was a dealer demonstrator with about 6k on the clock.
They’ve both been good, reliable cars. The only problem (that we knew about going in) is the regular maintenance costs on the Mercedes. Yikes! But it really isn’t much worse than the Expedition. A recent major service interval on the Expedition at 100k was about $3,000. But I skipped the 60k service and this one took the place of the 60k and 90k services.
I hear you with those German vehicles and their maintenance costs.
I spent a good amount of time in Germany when I was active Army, and I bought a nice new BMW 3 series in 2004 in Germany.
It felt like buying a Ford in the US...both in price and maintaining it while in Germany.
But when I brought it back to the states, holy crap, oil changes, tire replacement, basic maintenance, etc... went from reasonable to stupid really quick in terms of price.
I love BMWs, but I wont own another one in the States because of this regardless of how good the deal is.