Howdy all -

I'm looking at adding an 1990s 300D 2.5 turbo to my fleet of MB diesels. Looked at one today, interested in your opinions as to what would represent a fair price for this car. Here's the basics.

Car is being sold by a small independent lot specializing in older, imported high end cars. 1992 300D 2.5 turbo. Two-tone green exterior (don't know the color) over parchment MB tex. Car looks as if it was mostly garaged - no sun fading of the paint or interior. Paint is not great - lots of fine scratches, probably from automatic car washes. A few door dings, but nothing you'd notice if not looking. Some whitish spots on the hood - bird or tree damage? A few scrapes on the sides. One wheel was a bit bent - looks as if it hit a curb pretty good. Basically, the car looks really good from ten feet, but not quite so sharp from three feet. You get the idea.

Interior is pretty much perfect. MB-tex shows no sign of wear. Wood is almost perfect - there's one stress crack near the shift lever, but that's it. Carpet is pretty much perfect - well worn set of MB mats are in the trunk. Seats felt great, firm just like they should. No dash cracks. Steering wheel was sun damaged, particularly from about 10 O'clock to 2 O'clock.

Car started instantly from dead cold, and rattled just like an OM602 should. Just the slightest bit of visible smoke during cold start. Driveline felt darn good. Engine showed no turbo lag, and pulled decently hard to redline getting on the highway. Didn't notice any smoke during this maneuver either. Transmission shifted just perfectly. Firm during hard acceleration, unnoticable during gentle driving.

Body structure of the car was very tight. One rattle from the drivers door pocket, that was it. A/C got cold - it was 75 in Dallas today! Central locks worked, all windows operate fine, sunroof OK. Couldn't find any sign of bodywork - everything looked straight, no signs of overspray anywhere.

Car is showing 87K miles, and feels like that's the actual number. Carfax doesn't show any problems - was sold in 1996 with 39K, then late last year was sold to Carmax with 87K.

The downsides? No books or records, none at all. The steering wheel ticked back and forth in your hands - started at 30MPH, but wasn't any worse at 60MPH. The car itself didn't shimmy, only the wheel - couldn't feel anything when my wife drove. Brakes had a bit of the same when coming to a stop. Center vent above the A/C PBU was relucant to open - it did open for a bit when I pushed the hi-lo button, but would never open when set on a/c or EC. The cruise was dead - not a hint of life. Missing the underbelly pans.

Was not dealer maintained - it had green coolant, and the brake fluid is darn near black.

The seller is asking $9995. He is willing to address the problems before selling the car, but seems pretty firm on the price.

Thoughts? My opinion is it really needs decent books/records to justify that kind of price. On the other hand it has a fairly clean exterior, very clean interior and extremely low milage. My current thinking is that with the major problems corrected (shimmy, brakes, A/C) and a price of $9K it might not be so bad a deal. Everything else about the car felt darn good.

Your thoughts and opinions?

- Jim

'87 300TDT
'98 E300