Thanks for the replys. I've bought the car!

Firstly, the good stuff: Engine seems very smooth, and gearchange is also ultra smooth. The leather, and most of the interior is almost perfect. Air-con works!

Now onto the other bits:

None of the dash or console lights work, although all of the warning lights are OK.

When engaging either drive or reverse, sometimes it really does clunk a bit, although as I said above, actual gear change while driving is silk. Is this going to be a gearbox problem or something like a mount problem?

The oil light is on, although I have checked the oil a number of times and it is just below maximum. Could this be the sending unit or something?

Under some acceleration, it does blow out a bit of smoke, but I think the car has been standing for a good while, so I'm going to change all filters, oil and plugs today.

Paintwork isn't perfect, and there are a couple of broken pieces of interior trim that I need to replace, but for £1000 I think I got a pretty good deal.

It's my first V8 Mercedes, and I really do enjoy it!!

I'll send in some pics soon.

Thanks for all the input again

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Oliver