Good morning...
I just recently purchased a 1978 240D from a woman in the LA, California area and my experience to date has been far above what I expected it to be.
The car I bought is not as pristine or as mint as I had wished, but from all the records and a brief check from a mechanic a family member out in CA picked for me the car passed with flying colors. (or at least as flying as one can get in a $100 check-up.) The car is rust free and the interior is free of rips or excessive wear. It will need new tires soon but for now I'm told it's truly not in need of anything. All in all I was confident this car was well taken care of.
The owner of the 240D was a great help. Willing to do anything to make it work for me. She had tried selling it for a brief period of time in the LA area only to deal with what she called "flakey buyers". She helped my cousin with the check-up, delivered the car to a DAS terminal and was excellent at keeping me informed as to how things were progressing.
I live in Iowa about 2 hours from any DAS terminal so I had it shipped to the closest DAS drop point. doing a terminal to terminal shipment was the least expensive method (with DAS that is) Late yesterday afternoon I received a call from that my Mercedes had arrived. I'm pretty excited.
I'm dying to go pick it up, but we've been hit with freezing rain and they are predicting more. With luck tomorrow the ice age will break.
I've purchased MANY cars in my 46 years on this earth. I tend to research the heck out of my purchase. I'm not one to rush into a purchase yet I do hate when I miss out on the ones where I'm slowly doing my research.
Making a car purchase at a distance is much easier than it may seem. There are ways to transfer money to people quickly, sellers that are experienced with selling to buyers in far off locations and transport companies with up to the moment step by step tracking. We were able to see where the car was at any given moment. (quirky yes but kind of fun too!)
I have to say that in all my searching I found that the actual car itself didn't hold me off from buying at a distance, it was actually the seller that I was most leery.
I'll get some pictures of my 240D on here as soon as I can.
Have a great day!