I'm 23F looking to buy my first car. I've already decided that I want a Toyota corolla. My parents had a corolla for ages and ages and it was super reliable. I can put down 12k and finance the rest, or if amount is less than 15k pay the whole thing at once. Ideally I would like to stay around 10k (seeing as it's a first car and I'm a new driver), which I'm not sure if it's reasonable in the car market today or not.

However the corollas I'm seeing in good conditions with <90k miles are quite expensive, like 15-18k and a new one is about 24k. Is it just better to buy a new one?

I've also heard that it's more difficult to get a loan for an older or high mileage car so if I find one that's in my budget it's likely one of those, and I'm worried the financing options will be terrible. Any advice is appreciated.