Thanks for the replies.

Gigtime: Yes the car did have the scheduled mercedes services done evidenced by the stickers in the owner's maintenance manual. The lack of a/c doesn't bother me as much as the lack of heat. Maybe a monovalve thing or likely some electrical issue is causing this. I agree, though, on the tranny leak as I would have tried to complete the deal had there been none. I don't like leaky cars.

86560SEL: Thanks for the welcome! From your username, sounds like you have a nice car. Evidently, the car has been garaged it's whole life and I did check around it for more rust and found none.

What I sense happened is that the owner just got sick of putting money into the car and decided to sell it rather than throw more into it. In fact, in his ad he mentioned that the reason for selling was the cost of fixing the a/c was more than the car was worth. But, as we all know, these Mercedes are worth more than people realize. These cars are built so solidly. These one owner cars with history are a little more difficult to come by around here and taking a crapshoot with a dealer is something I don't like the thought of.

Basically, I can live with the lack of functioning creature comforts like a/c, but if putting another $1500 +/- into a car with a complete maintenance history will insure a few good years in the best Stuttgart had to offer, I wouldn't mind.