Used Cars: Question About a Camry, toyota camry, accurate maintenance

Question
I'm looking to buy a used Toyota Camry for my 16 year old son.  It will be his first car.  We like the style prior to the model change of 2002 (the '99, '00, '01.)  I would like to know if a '99 is too old to buy and is it bad to buy a car with 100,000 miles already on it.  I was just wondering if there is a general rule of thumb about how far back you should go when purchasing used before the quality and inner workings of the car begin to diminish.  Also, if I'm allowed another question, if a CarFax report shows the car has been in accident, would you buy the car?  Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer
When you are talking about buying a Toyota or a Honda, mileage and year model would not be much of a concern if they have been taken care of.  Imports are known for going a long time with minimal maintenance.  Just try to find out if the timing belt has been replaced on the vehicles that are over 100k.  I would buy a car that carfax had shown to be wrecked, but I would take every precaution in doing so.  I would want to know how bad the wreck was, and then I would take it to a reputation worthy body shop and have them tell me what they think of the job done.  When buying a used car, to me, the most important thing is how well the car was taken care of, if you can find somebody with a car for sale, that has a true and accurate maintenance history on the vehicle, I would definetly pay more money for one like that.  I hope all goes well and let me know if I can be of further assistance.