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I would almost want to recommend walking away, given the "little disposable income", unless it goes down hard and the possiblity of starting over with something else (in other words being prepared for a repair estimate big enough to choke a horse and just cashing in your chips for whatever someone will offer you for it and buy him another vehicle somehow appeals to you). Maybe $2500 is the price for what seems to be a "beater car" these days. A beater car to me is one you buy and don't really stick much money in to, just normal maintenance and if it goes down hard you simply replace it.
The transmission seems to be everyones big worry with the 97-98 on up cars with the 722.6.
At this "price point" I don't know if you'd have any records on it.
On a salvage title MB won't even recogize the vehicle as a MB any more, so probably no way to find out anything about it from them.
But if there is any paperwork showing maintenance has been kept up, that would be good.
Fuel pumps were a sore spot on these, not sure if that's the case at this point.
Can't really think of too much else, drive it and see what you think of it, check the tires, brakes, find out if the sparkplugs have even been replaced, see if the trans is leaking, how does it shift, is it burning oil (supposed to be running on gas in case you forgot, dieselboy, LOL). Just give it a good once over or pay to have an inspection done, $100 to have it checked is not a bad investment, but I'd want someone who works on Euro cars to do it, not the tire store down the road.
What does your son feel about an SUV over a small economical car? I would think a small car would be better suited for a large city, maybe he'd even want a scooter, but I don't know where he is going or much else, so hard for me to say.
Are you talking next summer because summer is over, kind of late to take a summer internship..
EDIT I'd also find out what the salvage branding was about, flood damage or is it two different trucks taped together or what??? If it was something like flood damaged and was from a long time ago, then 2500 might be a good deal, just an unfortunate thing that happened but an SUV would probably be better to survive this in "normal" condition than a car, but if it is a Frankencar, then it probably is only worth the last 3 digits of that price.
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