I really dont think you should import mate as there are plenty of nice examples around at the moment. Yes your budget is a little tight, but as you say... if you go for a higher mileage zed, you should be ok. My only advice would be to maybe hold off until you could put another 1k towards the zed and then you will get a much nicer example and not as many miles
Dont be put off by imports at all, just do your research on here using the search button and that should answer all your questions or doubts....... if not..... post up a question and I am sure some of us JDM owners will be able to sort you out