Bob,
At 50 posts you appear to be a fairly experienced member here. You should know that it never hurts to take some initiative.
First, we have a forum dedicated to Mercedes ML vehicles. Just in case you’ve never seen it, here’s a link:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=17
Second we have a very good search feature here. You will find it at the top of almost every display at mercedesshop.com, but in case you’ve never seen that, here’s al link to that:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/search.php
You can use the search for just about any key word or series of keywords you’d care to research.
Third, you can do a rudimentary search on Carfax yourself at
www.carfax.com And for a mere $15 you can run any number of searches with them. Isn't it worth $15 to investigate a $19000 expense????
Fourth, you can contact just about any Mercedes dealer and ask for what is called a master vehicle record by giving them the VIN. The MVR is the service history for the vehicle. Due to privacy issues, they may not give you all the details but if you stop by you’ll probably get more information.
Fifth, depending on the model year, there may be any number of known problems that may or may not have been resolved. You can find out about this stuff by doing a search here and to a better extent at a source called
www.alldata.com. Alldata.com lists all known issues for most vehicle models, by model year.
Sixth, in addition to all the above, before you buy ANY used car or truck, you should take it to a 3rd party and have them do a used vehicle inspection.
Lastly, meaning no offense, your post appears to simply ask for anyone willing to just do the work for you. You will get much further by being motivated and spending a little time and money rather than waiting around for someone to do your work for you.
Hope this helps you in your search.
Good luck!
BTW, what does anyone say to adding a used car resarch topic to the DIY sections of the site?