I have had good experience with older vehicle's reliability.
I have 4 Honda Odyssey's: two 2006's, and two 2007's.
The vehicles are very reliable. I maintain them very meticulously.
I estimate I'll be able to get parts for them for another 12 years, after which time, the parts availability will dry up.
I really like that generation Odyssey's luxury (8 soft leather seats), sunroom, Navigation screen, DVD screen for the 2nd and and 3rd row), etc. and these used car prices for these vehicles are low ($4k to $6k) as opposed to $50k for a similarly equipped new one.
I visit the odyclub forum daily, and became knowledgeable on all the issues these van's are likely to have.
At the advise of that forum, I do a 3.3 quart drain/fill of the transmission fluid every 15k miles, as the consensus is if you do that, your transmission will last 300k+ miles in these Odysseys.
I change the oil every 4k/6 months with a full synthetic oil, as these J35 engines with VCM enabled get very hot on the front 3 cylinder heads and can cook the oil.
My vehicles have standard tension piston rings (not low tension piston rings like the newer ones), and they use no oil between oil changes. They don't leak oil at all either. My driveway cement has zero stains.
So my advise to you is visit the forums for the vehicle you are interested in, learn about all the common issues, make a list of them, and then decide if you want to find one with lower miles and in excellent condition.
There are always vehicles where the grand parents are getting too old to drive, and the children are trying to sell the vehicles
(Ex: The 40,000 mile 2011 Toyota Corollas which you see on Craiglist a few times a month).
Be patient, wait for the perfect one to come onto Craigslist, and then be ready to act fast with money in hand and buy the same day
as the cream puffs get sold very fast.