Hello all, I've been lurking for a while and finally decided to join up and contribute to this great community. I've been around many other car forums and you all really are the most civilized and considerate group of people I've seen in a long while. My recent past has been mostly in watercooled VWs and BMWs, I've always been very DIY oriented and am not afraid to get grease under my nails. This is my first venture into the diesel world, so far I love it!

Anyway, I've been half looking for a well kept local car for several months and the right one finally showed up. I ended up with an 82 300D with (get this) 99k miles! Yes the odometer works and the mileage progression was confirmed with the carfax. All of the original paperwork was included and the service history for the first 10 years of the car show that it was only driven maybe 1500 miles a year. The majority of the miles have been in the last 8 years. When I drove it initially there was very little power and the tranny was flaring heavily. I checked the blow by and there is very little smoke so figured the internals were ok, just a tune issue. I did some research and confirmed that most of the issues with the car are probably just a matter of tune and nothing serious to worry about.

Got it home, among the first things to check were the ALDA banjo fittings...totally clogged. I also noticed the bowden cable wasn't in the right place. Take her for a test drive and this thing hauls ass (relatively) now with firm clean shifts. I have a long list of little things I'd like to replace mostly for piece of mind as this will be my daily driver very soon.

So he was asking $6k on craigslist (not a bad deal I think) but due to the "failing transmission" and obvious "lack of power" I offered $4k, however we agreed on $5k. I think it was an outstanding deal, I've seen cars this clean go on eBay for $10k. I'll be keeping this car for a long time.

Being a 100% Arizona car, there is not a single spot of rust and the white paint has held up well. I'll let the photos show the condition, it's a total cream puff!