A friend recently bought a smallish German SUV. Surprisingly book is about $25K for a 40K mile example. Affordable to buy (in the typical consumer universe) but I'll have to wait 5 or 6 years to see whether it was reliable or not.
I can assure you that multiple four figure repairs, loaner cars, and unhappiness are a lot closer that 5 or 6 years away, when it comes to buying used Eurotrash. If you can't resist, buy from Carmax, pay for the bumper to bumper extended warranty, and get chummy with your local dealer's service writer. Other than that, it's all self inflicted wounds.