Personally I would steer clear of the older models with the twist-down drive fitting but you should be OK with the later click-down version.
You should check very carefully indeed for cracks in and around the drive well. Cracks here can be hairline and very small and hard to see but they will let water into your boat, especially when pedalling, and they can be hard if not impossible to fix.
You should check the warranty situation on the boat. You can do this by copying the serial number from the panel usually found moulded into the plastic on the outside of the hull just below the gunwale in the vicinity of the rudder. The numbers & letters are often scratched in and can be a bit tricky to read but if you can take them down OK then someone here or a dealer should be able to help you decipher them. Hobie usually permits new owners to take advantage of the remaining warranty period and their support is second to none.
I would check the drive and the overall condition of the boat - bits for the drive can be quite expensive to buy but generally they are pretty robust machines and you wouldn't normally expect to have to replace a whole lot of components... Though there are several bits (e.g. Fin masts, cables, fins) which can and do break/degrade from time to time due to usage, either long, or harsh or both. You should be able to tell from the overall condition of the boat and its home environment whether or not it has been cared for. Scratches in the hull, even seemingly deep ones, can be of little consequence because the poly hulls can take serious abuse from e.g being dragged over seashores, coral, hitting underwater obstacles etc (N.B.this advice does not apply to aforementioned drivewell cracks!)
Finally work out if the deal you are being offered includes any extras as some could be a very attractive option for you depending on your intended use - I would be looking for a kayak trolley , either Hobie or another brand(to help you get to the water's edge), turbo fins (so you can go faster more easily - don't forget to ask for the standard fins & masts, too, though!), larger rudder, mast, sail, daggerboard (Daggerboard applies to the Adventure models only). If you can score any of PFD, vhf radio, flares etc etc in the deal that would be more $$ saved too, potentially.
FWIW I bought one of my boats new and one of them second hand... which was then replaced FOC by hobie under warranty due to broken cam columns: the primary risk with the twist-down drive lock but not a problem with the new click downs. So secondhand has worked for me. I found that second hand boats were rare and quite highly-priced but I felt that that was goodness for me because it meant that my price to someone else would then be correspondingly high. I also managed to score a couple of extras in the deal.
Either new or second hand, these boats are brilliant so you pays your money & you takes your choice but either way, give it a go... If you are like everyone else here you will end up having a blast !!!
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