New cheap car

I need to shop (southern California) for a <=$4K car for a friend. I
believe that I want a Carolla because they're always at the top of
reliability lists and NOBODY I know wants to work on a car ever again.
So I'm looking at cars in the $3-$4K range with under 150K miles which
tend to be 2004-2006 models, generally LEs or CEs.

When I was looking for myself I chose a 2013 Corolla S, and I can't for
the life of me remember why I decided against CEs, but I'm willing to
trust my former judgment.

I believe that a newer one is better than an older one, although I have
nothing to base that on other than the difference between my Corolla and
the POS 1988 Caddy I had before. Is one Corolla pretty much as good as
another? The newer ones with side airbags are out of the price range,
but is there any other new technology that I should be thinking about?

I've set Craigslist alerts for likely cars -- experience (I just started
looking today) indicates that any car I was interested in was already
sold -- and intend to at least attempt to strike while the iron is hot.

Is there anything wrong with my thinking? I used to be confident in my
ability to buy an old car, but modern "old" cars are pretty much a
mystery except for truly obvious defects (sounds, smells, feel, etc.).

--
Cheers, Bev
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey
and car keys to teenage boys." -- P.J. O'Rourke