i bought the car for 2 grand today! It's a real beast of a coupe. It's really a decent driver that could be a candidate for resto sort of mod. That is if I keep it and really like it.

It turns out that my wife's uncle is a mechanic with a couple of garages still. So he just happened to be at one of them early this morning. And the guy selling the car called me last night asking if I would buy it today. So I met my uncle-in-law and the seller with the car at a garage in Redondo beach. It turns out the uncle is a 30 year Mercedes Benz mechanic and expert. He got the price down from 3 grand to 2 grand in a matter of minutes. Its a strange world. He even has a couple of the exact motors for this car in storage somewhere. Along with all kinds of mercedes goodies as well as corvette goodies. Turns out he buys new Mercedes Benzes with damage at auctions and fixes them to better than new for his clients.

He believes the mileage of this 300CE to be right around 120K and that the odometer's plastic gear broke only 10k miles ago.

He also believes the pre cats and big cat are not the culprits. He says its the injectors and a fuel leak. Also it fails for a sloppy visual. And thatit fails for NOX. Among other things. He's going to smog the car for me. Then help me get the car up to snuff. It could cost money. Seems that this is one of the cars the state helps people with. For smogging that is. Anyone know about that?

The cats look and sound fine. The rear muffler looks decent too. The precats have a Bosch number on them. There are no shields on them.

The valve job was done I think before 100K. By a decent benz guy on the west side. That's what i've been told anyway.

I do need a rotor cap. It is a bosch unit I believe. It would help with the static on the becker grand prix radio. Maybe a complete tune-up kit is in order.

The front sub-frame bushings are going I was told.

When I got it home I was so busy that it's only now that I'm going thru the papers from the glove box.

The car also has full size chrome spare and tool kit and LA cellular set-up. The first aid kit has never been out of the box. its a little crazy. It's like a pristine driver that hasn't been kept immaculate but at the same time hasn't been punched out.

The papers are all there. The Data card, the window sticker, the booklets, the maintenance booklet showing that the original owner did not drive the car very much. Never more than 10K a year, usually far less. I think it sat a bit in the late 1990s. The second owner did not take such good care of it. But the valve job was performed. And I dont think he drove it much either. it sat in a garage in Beverly Hills. All in all its a decent and cheap driver purchase. All electrics are working. The interior is free of rips and stains. The leather is the off white color so it aged well enough. Not a speck of rust but lots of little nicks and dents from narrow parking lot spaces.

Thanks for the help.

Jason