If the thing is currently tagged and on the road, you don't have much worry that there's some smog or safety troll underneath the bridge. Cars of this age are often exempt from state inspections, and diesels from smog tests.

Where do you live?

All the "foreign" trim makes it more interesting, IMHO. BTW, the July/August 2004 issue of the Mercedes-Benz club magazine, The Star, did a really nice profile of such a car (two of mine are similar).

If you want, you can swap out the interior for an MB Tex one, and I believe the headlamp assemblies will also exchange with U.S.-style ones.

Follow the suggestions for a pre-purchase checkout which appear repeatedly on this forum (do a search). Would love more info and some pix, if possible.

Good luck!