Thanks for the replies guys.

The miles weren't bad, just under 125k. The guy I bought it from was the 3rd (I think?) owner, and had had it about 6 years. There were no records available, and that does indeed make it a bit of a crapshoot. Maybe there was not regular maintenance done on it, difficult to know.

I like the "most expensive Mercedes" quote... that did indeed hold true for me. I paid a pretty decent price ($2000 cash), but ended up putting more than that into the car in about 10 months. In hindsight, I might've done better buying one from the shop where I had service done (they come with 6 month warranties, and are typically cars that they have serviced themselves). They had an early/mid 90s 400E for $5500 but only had about 80k and came with that 6-month warranty and looked nearly new, it was really nice. Maybe I should have gone with that one. Trying to save some bucks probably ended up costing me in the end.

My 300 drove really nice at highway speeds (70+ mph). To be honest, it didn't do much for me tooling around town, as it felt a bit bulky to me (keep in mind, I've typically driven smaller/nimbler cars). But man, on the open road, I must admit, it sure drove nice.

Wish my experience would've been more positive. I just had no confidence in the car at this point and had to let it go--I've got to have reliability out of a car; it's the single most important fact to me, moreso than looks or "vibe." The Benz had both of those, but I just couldn't feel confident in getting from A to B--particularly if B was more than a few miles away.

Unfortunately, I'm not very mechanically inclined, so I was dependent on my local shop. And I got to know them waaaaay too well LOL.

Oh well, I guess you just have to stick with what works for you sometimes. I was stationed as a young soldier in Deutschland (82-84) and always wanted a Benz. Getting an older one was really my only option due to price. Rolled the dice and crapped out, stuff happens.

Thanks for the replies and may you all have many happy miles with your Mercedes...