While I tend to shy away from dealers, it might be a good car so don't write it off just yet. On the open used car market, the car you are looking at is just another really old car that isn't anything special. Few generic people are going to go car shopping with ~ $ 4,000 and pick this over a 8 year old mini van so the market is very limited.

You never know, the car might have been someone's nice retirement car and they have since passed on. The estate might have traded it on something else and the lot is just looking to get out from under it.

Distance makes it more difficult to drive down the road and check it out. I'd call a MB dealer / trusted independent shop and see if they would give it a pre purchase inspection ( at your expense of course ) . The selling dealer may or may not want to do this. Don't be put off if the seller won't do this, the car is selling for almost nothing ( MB or not ) and they might not want to burn time / expense to transport.

If you still want the car and the seller does not want to burn time on someone that might not buy, a last option would be to draw up a contract where you pay a decent deposit and agree on what level of immediate repairs triggers price reduction / contract cancellation. The car then goes to the dealer for a check.

Lastly, don't let "Florida car" lull you into "no rust". Year round salt air is probably worse than salty snow as it dosen't go away for 9 months+.

Agree with most of this post but regarding rust, it depends on where in Fla. the car was and how it was cared for. Salt air is only a factor very near the water. At least it is here in Los Angeles, if cars are not 1 block from the beach, they do not rust. I've bought countless old cars in this city and I'm fanatical about rust, so this is not just a random opinion.

OK, now I actually clicked on the link. As someone who has traveled WAY too much to look at cars, I can tell you that I would not drive across town for that. It is simply not a nice car. I love the SDL model and have owned a good one, but when these cars transition from cucumber to pickle, it's an ugly thing. ANd they will never be a cucumber again.

Cucumber Mercedes are worth good money. Pickles are not worth dick. The two wagons in the link are also extreme pickles. I can smell them from here, and I'm in CA. I have a good friend who is a dealer and he's bought hundreds of used cars in Florida. The major problem is not rust, (though it can be a problem), it's the humidity. Cars get musty inside and in some cases, they never dry-out properly. And by never, I mean NEVER. The only way to buy a 25 or 30 y.o. Mercedes, IMO, is to buy a nice, dry car that does not smell like ass. You will pay more. Fresh blueberries are expensive. Moldy ones are not. The market recognizes this. You will put maintenance $$ into any old Mercedes, but in the case of a nice one, you will not be flushing $$ down a rabbit hole.

Life is too short for schit boxes. JMHO.