German cars are usually very expensive. And you'll find a lot of (c)rusty cars that have been made to look good but are never worth their money on a closer look. Plus winters are cold in many regions of this country and salt on the road is the worst enemy of every car.
Spain and Italy might we worth a closer look. I recently saw some MK2 XR2s for sale in Spain. There's many more for sale than in Germany and usually half the price. Spain is much warmer, just be careful with cars close to the sea, especially the Atlantic.
In Britain we have a lot of bad weather as well but there are still lots of older Fords which have been well looked after and not rust buckets, the guy has to search everywhere to see if there is an Escort RST that is a good one and get it bought. My Sapphire Cosworth 2wd was made in 1990 but it was waxoyled from nearly new and in the 26 years I have owned it it has passed 26 MOTs with no rust problems.