Mike,

It was from a private party. The prices at dealers were $1500-$2000 more. CarFax checked out. I went under the car after I bought it, and it "looked" like a low mileage car. I think I got a pretty good price for a variety of reasons. Here in SoCal there are a LOT of used cars for sale. Cars with lo lo miles go relatively quickly but for everything else, buyers have a commanding position. Seller was the son of the owners and he had bigger fish to fry and he had a busy schedule which puts off a lot of other buyers. Main driver of the car was mom. The car had a few door dings that would make a man cry. Paint was overall excellent but some good scratches in places. It may been that other potential buyers were looking for a more cosmetically pristine car figuring that with the Mercedes there is really no difference with a 35k mileage car versus a 60k mileage car. My priorites were the opposite so the car was perfect for me (my wife, actually). In my search, the first car I narrowly missed was a 1999 C280, 35k, for $14,500. I never saw this car but from the ad, I got the feeling it was pretty much pristine.

glenmore
1991 300CE
1990 LS400
2000 C280