Howdy, folks.

I've been reading here for a few days and have been really impressed with the people here. Thanks for the great forum!

I'm looking at buying a '79 300SD for about $1000. Southern car, no rust, starts easily at 18 degrees F, smokes a little cold and at take-off but settles down when warm, everything else reasonably ok. Too old for carfax and the odometer is broken. Current owner says odo hasn't worked since he got it and that it's stuck at around 34k miles. I know that sounds a bit suspect, but given that it starts easily (therefore has reasonable compression) and that it's only $1k, it sounds like a good deal to me.

Can y'all tell me specifically why I wouldn't want a '79 model, or this particular car? Any weak spots in that year?

Thanks!
Darren