Originally Posted by POS

Price and condition mean everything. What's he want for it and what condition is it in? If it was me, I'd try to figure out as much as possible what you can do to diagnose WITHOUT fixing it, and don't tell seller your conclusion.

I went and looked at a 35k mile 1986 300SL once and it wouldn't start either, and then once it did, it ran like crap. But, I spent some time getting it working and running well-enough, then she said she'd take it to an MB dealer to get it fixed, then I could buy it after that for the asking price. I agreed, then the ***** sold it out from under me.