If you average it out 180 000 over 9 years (03) is actually what they term 'average' KMs for a car - 20 000km/year. Some people will argue that 'highway KMs' are better on the car than start-stop city driving. I haven't formed an opinion over that and I'm not gonna start an argument here haha. Placed in your shoes, i'd be looking at the 03 model purely cos its newer in terms of KMs. Looks unmolested/unmodified which I like as a base car, that way you know exactly what you're doing with your mods. But I get where you're coming from in terms of the 'looks' of the facelift. I may be biased against old cars because prior to my sportivo i drove a 92 S13 which was nothing but trouble for me haha. I'm hoping someone else can chime in to the 'reliability' of these 2ZZ engines.