Have been looking for a station wagon for some time now. I recently had a buyers-check made on a '95 E-320 wagon from New York State that a local dealer got from his wholesaler. No records, (no owners manual, even) The car has 89,000 miles and except for a bubbling at the lower edge of the side rear window, seems to have a perfect body. No body or paintwork anywhere on the car. Issues in the buyers report from the shop I took it to are as follows (well, just the ones that concern me).......

Head gasket seepage-slight
distributor seal seepage-slight
water leak at rear window (not the one with the rust)

The rest of the stuff is cosmetic, center armrest, inop headrest, etc.

The one that bothers me the most is the one he didn't mention that I found- the paint bubbling up-- about a one inch long spot directly under the lower edge of the rubber at the base of the long window on the left rear of the car. Car is $12.7K no warr.
So, my question.
Am I going to see this all over the car in a year or so?
I have a friend with the same car, bought two years ago in GA
who now has rust beginning to show around the rear wheelwells.
We are located in Coastal Mass. The highway dept uses a ton of road salt. Maybe we should buy a newer car. I understand the newer cars are not as prone to rust as the older ones.

Maybe I need to reconsider the '01 E-320 wagon with 82,000 miles we looked at. No records on that one, either. The dealers are telling me that records are not generally included with the cars they sell to protect the privacy of the previous owner. The (used car) dealer with the '01 Benz, got it from a Benz dealer in the area. Carfax says one-owner, car looks very nice, $25K.
But I keep hearing how trouble-prone the newer models are. I'm not rich, I work two jobs. I can do my own oil change and brake jobs, but I don't want a car that's going to take me for broke, either. I guess unless something requires hookup to some exotic piece of equipment to diagnose, I will fix it myself. The venom posted on some other websites(MB Problems.com, etc.) directed at MB in regards to the newer models is a little disturbing.
Any thoughts?

__________________
Mike.