I am currently in the market for a 300TD. Found an 87 at a Merc Dealership about 900Kms from where I live. It has 225305Kms (140k miles)on it. Apparently Interior and Exterior is in excellent cond no rust only a few door dings. It was apparently owned by a guy who lived in an area with some dirt roads, consiquently the fuel tank is dented and the underbody was quite dirty when they received it on trade. It had one collision in 1990 that cost $5023.23 Canadian(aprox$3200US) to repair. They are asking $16900 (11000US).

My questions are: Would rough dirt roads significantly effect the long term dependability(suspension,motor, transmission). They offered to let me talk to the service technician by phone. I have an inspection report with the following noted as sould be kept under observation, oil leak on engine, transmision oil leak and rear diff leak. What specific questions should I ask the service tech to help me determine if this one is worth the 8-10 hour drive to look at.

If this wasn't a TD I would not be willing to make this trip but with so few TD's around I have to consider them all. I read on a post that there were only aprox 1000 of these sold in the US for 1987, my guess is in Canada this # is significantly less considering the entire country buys less new cars than the state of California every year.
Thanks for any advice you can give
Brad