I was planning on taking any potential cars to a highly recommended mechanic that everyone says is great a pre-purchase inspections so that would mitigate the risk enough for me. I'd be willing to go higher mileage (70-90k) if the car had more history to show it's long term reliability, particularly with the fuel dilution seen by some CX-5 owners in climates similar to mine and our incredibly salted roads here in Northern Utah that cause damaging rust in some cars. But the fact that there hasn't been enough time for >100K miles and long term reliability testing makes me want to avoid high mileage cars.
I'd also pay a $500 dealer premium in a heartbeat but KBB lists the dealer premium as $2300 and a CPO premium as $3300 for the CX-5 here. And those premiums seem correct with the dealers I've talked to. 2014 Touring, 46K, CPO was $18,800. '14, GT, 77K, CPO was $19,000 after negotiations!
I'm kind of thinking that without private sellers, the CX-5 is just beyond my budget considering I don't want more than 50k miles. Which is unfortunate cause there's no CUV with as good of MPG, ground clearance, low book value and reliability so far and that's not even considering how much better the look and interior is compared to the contenders, IMO obviously.
I think my options are a 2012 Rav4 (not reliable enough in the couple years before and too low of clearance after) or just giving up on ground clearance and getting a hatchback.