Okay guys give me some feedback on this, please. I live in Japan so these cars would be import only over there.

I have narrowed my search to two cars, both Cubes.

This is the first one. It has pretty badly stained back seats and a large worn-through patch on the carpet in the back (you can see a bit in the pictures). It also has a scratched rear right mudguard, and someone has attempted to fill in some scratches over the wheel with a similar coloured but lumpy paint.
The upside is that it would be less than 400,000yen (3000 pounds) delivered and has MOT until October next year. MOT is every 2 years in Japan and costs roughly 1500 pounds.
To me the upholstery is very important, and it really fails on that count. It was fine to drive, made healthy noises etc. Tires would need replacing at the end of the MOT period.
Light yellow 2002 Cube

The second is just under 600,000 (4500 pounds) delivered. It's nicer, and has GPS, 20,000 less km on the clock, is 3 years newer and MOT until feb 2012
Dark Orange 2005 Cube

The catch is I'm buying with my woman. She wants the lesser of the two. I said I would pay the extra for the other one, but in the way women do she has explained how my money is actually our money (read: her money), and she needs a damn good reason why we should spend an extra 1,500 pounds.

Can you come up with any?

We're probably going to be driving it for at least a few more years.