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With mileage under 100k...was looking at caldina and toyota wish 2005/2006 but worried thats a bit too old. Would like something a bit more recent.. say 2008/09, or am i asking too much for up to $15k? Was also looking at Corolla wagons - 1.8 preferably but these seem to come with CVT transmission which i'm paranoid about

The Caldina and Wish are good models - probably the 1.8 has a better reputation than the 2.0 litre which has the D4 enging that suffered carbon build-up problems.
The Corolla also has a good reputation, with the 1.8 litre engine (same as in Caldina) enjoying a good reputation. Later model ones may have a CVT, but CVTs have gotten much better in recent times, and early ones have the traditional automatic, which has a great reputation.
Another model you could consider would be tha Mazda6 or Mazda Atenza (which is the import version).
All these wagons are extremely popular, hence you may need to compromise slightly on the year - although with a budget of $15k, I think you should be able to get something slightly newer than '05/'06. Having said that, a good, low mileage car that's a year or so older would be preferable than a later model high mileage example of the same car.