Well, I did it! Tonight there was a full moon, I turned 50, and for my birthday, I acquired my first diesel! The seller's wife was not happy that I haggled the price down to $225!

There's a bit more rust under the drivers seat than I hoped, but the seat mountings seem OK for now. The rear wheel arches, which can be so difficult to properly repair, are rust-free. Except for some trunk-lid scratches, the 8 year old repaint still looks good.
Engine starts up instantly from cold (at least with today's 70 degrees - we'll see how she does two months from now when it's freezing!) Guage reads max oil pressure, even idling in gear after warm-up. I couldn't actually drive her more than a few feet back and forth, due to the aforementioned cracked rear wishbone

She's a 'full-dress' 240D, with power locks, power windows (all working!) manual sunroof, automatic tranny (claimed rebuilt 3 years ago) cruise control (condition unknown) and four new Mchelin X tires!
AC is dead (no suprise) but heater heats and blower works fine (but of course the W123 must have one of the easiest to change Mercedes heater blowers) Thankfully NO ACC!
Will post more after daylight allows further examination.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW