Doing anything has risk involved. Buying an older car has a lot of risk involved. Good service records tell you not only what work was done, but who did the work and what level of quality was used. Then, the car's overall condition, the previous owner's personality, and the service records can give you a clearer picture of the life the vehicle has had in the past, which DOES minimize the risks you might face in the future.

Will an alternator or compressor fail? Possibly. But if the records show that an MB dealer put in all new AC parts within the past two years, then you've minimized more risk. Without records, you wouldn't know that. If the car was well-maintained, then it will last longer and perform better.

The risk is there, it always is, but mechanic's inspections and service records are not voodoo. They are a method of minimizing the risks you take when you buy an older car. If you buy the car and the failed compressor makes you feel like you got screwed because no one can see the future, then you didn't really understand and accept the risks of owning an older car in the first place - you should have bought a 2003 Toyota.

__________________
- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

I'm not afraid of risk or spending money on my vehicles. Actually I have been in the process of locating a Ferrari Mondial and am going through the test drive and selection process. At $12K for a 30K service the price for admission is expensive on the service side of that equation.

I have just found that many buyers put too much into the inspection and service record routine and fail to really follow through with the process. A car of that age range is going to need service and repair to keep it going and having pretty documentation and your mechanic giving you his blessing are really not going to change much. If you don't plan on going through each line item in the service records and call to verify the work was actually done I would not put much faith in them as they are easily forged. Many service facilities are too busy to bother with phone inquries like that so service records are useless and questionable unless pulled from the MB database. Many older cars have been serviced by shops that have no access to the MB database and can't be verified. So if some sleazy car dealer wants to increase the price of his 15 year old SEL he just goes down to the office supply store for a number of different colored pens and gets a phone book and some of the people in his office to write in the service data in the blank service booklet he found in the glove compartment.

Your best way of obtaining a good car is to drive a lot of them and get a feel for the whole production run of the vehicle. Once you get to know the small details and differences between the car you can not only better pick the car that works for you the best but you can start to detect minor differences in the way that the cars drive. There is no definate formula for which cars are the best by year it all depends on what happened in the production run. Take for example 126 diesels. Buying a 1991 350SDL (bad engine design)might be a big mistake while buying a last year model 1999 S320 (they worked out all the bugs on the 140) would be a good thing.

As for the Mechanics inspection it depends on the level of inspection that your mechanic goes through. Many of the "inspection" items can be done yourself if your familiar enough with the cars as many mechanics are not comfortable with digging into a car for a prepurchase inspection because of the liability. Many mechanics will take your car out on their lunch break put it on a lift give you a yay or nay and perhaps a list of sqwaks and collect their $85 inspection fee.

As with many car things prepurchase inspections are copied from the Aviation industry. A prepurchase inspection on a plane involves taking it partially apart to inspect structural components for corrosion and cracks inside wings and inside the fuselage. Its not really possible to do this on a modern car as many of them were not designed to be taken apart and put back together more than a few times.