Another teenager trying to find the right car

I just turned 17 and I'm looking for my first car. I want an suv or truck so I've been looking at 80's and late 90's toyota 4runners pickups and tacomas( love the look of these models and I need a truck for work in the summer) and I have a few questions. I also have a VERY small budget around the 1.5k area , so keep that in mind.

1. Rebuilt engines? What exactly does that mean and should I stay away from cars or suvs with them?

2. What kind of millage should I be looking for?

I have absolutely no mechanical experience, NONE. But I really want to learn how to work on my own car, ya know. So my last question is. Would any of these models be harder to learn how to work on than say a ford of chevy that's around the same age?

Any other advice will be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks

A rebuilt engine means that the engine was seriously broken at some point and it was either torn apart and put back together with new parts or it was replaced with an engine that was assembled from new parts.

With your relatively limited budget, you're pretty much going to have to take what you can find.

Older Toyota pickups aren't any harder or easier to work on than older Ford Rangers and possibly easier than older S10/S15/Sonomas

The only advantage of the domestic pickups is that you have more options for upgrades if you eventually decide to go that route, but there's still a very active community of Toyota pickup enthusiasts.

theres the Geo SUV made a few years back, IMO, get a car fun to drive cheap, my 1979 Trans Am(130,000 miles) was 1200 dollars, T-tops and all, maybe you won't get that lucky, but check all the used car lots and some new car lots, maybe something will come up