I am in eastern PA.
I would go check out a Mercedes for a forum member too, time permitting.
Weekends would be preferable.
I'd be willing to go look/drive at least for just the cost of my out of pocket expenses, such as gas/diesel fuel.
I do have a local Bosch shop that I trust pretty well with a pre-purchase inspection.
They would very likely find a lot of things wrong and give itemized costs to repair, in writing, for under $100 (he was around $60 in 1998). Good bargaining tool that might pay for the cost of the pre-purchase inspection, especially when you can show the seller that this car will take at least $1000 to pass inspection, and it really could use $2-4K in additional work to make everything work right... etc etc