The problem with significantly lower than average mileage cars is that mostly you cannot tell whether that mileage was mainly made up of short trips to the shops or school, whereby the car wouldn't have warmed up and the mechanical systems, especially the brakes, wouldn't get a good workout.
My 11yo Mazda3 has only done approx. 62k miles in that time, sometimes 9k in a year, others only 1.9k, but always longer journeys, and yet would be almost indistinguishable to another example that had done lots of trips to the local shops, etc. That's where both a good look around, a thorough test drive and evidence of the service and maintenance history proves really useful. Sometimes it can be better to go for a higher mileage example if there's prooof that they've been well looked after and doesn't have an expensive wear and tear item due for replacement (such as on some high-mileage modern diesels), which is the main reason why the current owner is flogging the car (often at a discount).
With older cars, condition and history is paramount. Don't be afraid to say no if you're not 100% sure - there's always lots of other cars to look at, though in general try not to wait until you have to change cars (i.e. when a small problem not fixed becomes a terminal one) before starting to look around and doing research on what you need and would be a good replacement.
I see a few other new posters here do this because they are either too lazy to put in the effort to make the right choice, or that have no interest in cars, so just go with what others say, and often what's the most convenient (a dealer's dream customer). They forget that, aside from buying or doing up a home, its the most expensive purchase you'll ever make, and can have dire consequence if you get it wrong (losing £££ on a lemon, breakdowns causing you to lose a job, miss important events, etc, or worse, if you really get [pardon the pun] taken for a ride by an unscrupulous trader [lots still around, unfortunately]). My advice is keep putting a decent effort into your 'homework' (asking for assistance here is a good start, as there's lots of it available as seen above and in other threads) and you'll end up with a car that you'll like and won't let you down. Best of luck.
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