I just got back from looking at the car....here are my observations:

Positives:

1. The car has been re-painted. Looks like a pretty decent job....solid exterior skin, solid around headlights, doors in great shape, little to no rust...very clean around door gasket chanels, even at bottom inside of doors looks very good. Repainted same color as original...new on exterior, original paint on insides of doors. Some overspray, as on rubber door seals, but, looks like trim, light fixtures and so forth were removed before painting, then re-installed. No apparrent botched bondo work....body work on exterior skin looks good, although not perfect.

2. Interior good...seats, dash, headliner, etc. in good condition.

3. Trunk hood and engine compartment hood looks good, hinges good etc.

4. Both bumpers look real good...no apparent corrosion inside bumpers. Bumpers feel solidly attached...then don't move when you lift car up and down by bumpers (but see below about bumper support areas)

5. Inside trunk generally good, solid bottom... even the inside of the spare tire well looks good (however lots of rust where jack is stored behind the spare...see below).

6) Tire wear looks even (although I dont know how long the tires have been on the car)

7) While engine is a little dirty (see below) the engine compartment generally looks sound...firewall solid.

Negative:

1. Lots of rust on undercarriage....in many places it looks like the outer undercarriage metal "skin" has completely rusted through.

2. Lots of rust around all jack sleeves...It looks like if you jacked it up using the existing jack holes that the weight of the car would not be supported....i.e. looks like the structure around the jack sleeves would collapse (I didnt actually do this)

3. All rubber door and trunk seals are original, and are very cracked and hard...would need to be replaced (although, as I said, the channels that hold them are excellent.

4. Lots of bad structural rust around all bumper supports....bumper supports look fine from general exterior view, but when you look up underneath the car, inside of the exterior skin, there is lots of rust around bumper shocks

5. Where jack is stored behind the spare, I can look down through a couple of layers of rusted metal and I can see daylight

6. Black silicone caulking around rear window chrome trim where it meets body.

7. Car would not start...it was parked in the shade, and temps went down to about 15F last night...I arrives at 9:00 am..warming up but car still cold in the shade. It wasnt plugged in overnight. We attached two booster batteries, heated glow plugs for about a minute and cranked several times, and repeated this 4 times. Not even the slightest indication that the engine wanted to start.

8. I did not look at records (I had already seen enough, and didnt want to take the time). The car looks as though all bushings, subframe mounts, etc. are original. Shocks, and tie rod ends had probably been replaced.

9. While exterior body skin looks real good, its probably hiding lots of problems under the skin (as described above)...for example, I pulled out on bottom of the rear passenger quarter panel behind back wheel, and I could pull the exterior skin away from chassis.

10. Motor dirty...no evidence of meticulous owner having detailed motor through the years. However, there didnt appear to be major leaks. Very hard to tell, as the car is 28 years old. Lots of oil leaking around the air cleaner(?)..is that what that is just behind the passenger side headlight. Engine compartment would probably clean up real well

11. Rubber coolant hoses look original, and some rust where hoses connect to metal tubes at the firewall (to heater core?). Not real bad though.

12. Drivers window lever just spins...broken regulator inside

13. I didnt spend time looking under all carpets to look at foot wells...drivers foot well looked ok. I tried to lift rear passenger side carpet and could not lift...felt like it was frozen to the floor, so there is probably water in back foot wells.

I spoke to the guy who drove the car from another dealer, and he said that the car hummed along real nice, shifted well, and tracked straight. Probably true..but who knows until you see for yourself....I didnt want to wait for him to plug it in and start it....while I was there, the dealer put the car on a flatbed truck to bring to their main yard to plug in. I did steer the car while three other guys pushed it out to line up to tow truck.. For what its worth, steering/suspension felt fine...no creaks and knocks. (but like I said, I did not driveit).


All in all, I would not call the car a real junker, but undercarriage etc. does show its age with some real bad body rot, so this is not a long term driver unless you bring it to the sun belt. My general impression was that the car probably runs and drives well...I got the impression that the car is probably structurally sound...i.e. shock towers, suspension, structural body components looked OK. But lots of rust elsewhere under car, and lots of upgrading needed (all the usual stuff...glow plugs, rubber hoses, door seals, gaskets, bushings, emerg. brake cable, etc.). This would make a great parts car, esp. for doors, hoods, body panels, interior, etc. Four doors are probably worth about $1,000 so a price tag of 1,000 to 1,500 would be within reason as a sun belt driver for a few years or a parts car.

I'm not bidding on it....I'd rather wait for a pristine sun belt car and pay a fair price for it.

Mark

__________________
1984 300TD Wagon, 407,800 mi (current daily driver)
1985 300DT Sedan, 330,000 mi (gone to that great autobahn in the sky)