That is, unless you're knowledgeable enough to know what other problems could be caused by the problems described(if that makes sense), and skilled enough to fix those once you make the purchase.
Plenty of people buy used "broken" vehicles just to drop a few bucks and have them running again. I'm not saying it happens all the time...you just have to know which ones are the good deals.
I know a guy that bought a complete, used Savage X 5.9 for $275...the guy that sold it claimed it needed a new clutch. The guy that bought it fired it right up and ran it no problem.