Find a reputable dealer...it can be a used car lot or a dealership that puts an honest effort into selling used cars. Ask around. You also may want to narrow the used car lot down by finding out which ones specialize in the type(s) of cars you are interested in. I recently bought a used car and got it from a lot that specializes in imports...in particular Euro imports. These lot owners often tend to be enthusiasts of the cars they sell.
Make sure the car had one owner and has a clean service history. You don't want to buy a lemon, but luckily a lemon will often show up at low mileage. If the dealership can not tell you where the car came from stay away from the car and the dealer.
After that it's really do a good test drive. It is often easy to tell which cars were well taken car of and which ones weren't. Look for how clean the dealer was able to get the car on the inside. A nice clean car indicates something that is well taken of, a car that has dirt/crumbs that seem to be ground in and no amount of vacuuming can remove indicates a previous owner that didn't care much for his car (after all it was a lease).
And of course how the car drives will also give you an indication on how well it was taken of. I would recommend that as you are going with a newer 2005/6 type car that you drive some brand new models of those cars (if there have been no substantial modifications made to the model in the last few years). This gives you a basis for how the used car should drive if it was well taken care of and a bad car will be pretty obvious.
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