So I've been browsing Craigslist for some time now and finally came across an ironhead Mercedes diesel, about 35 miles away:
http://reno.craigslist.org/car/386194290.html
I called the owner (a younger woman) and asked her about the car. She assured me it's in great shape. I asked her among other things about the driver's seat whether it's leaning to one side and she said no, it's straight. After a while she also confessed that there's "a crack in the dash" and that the AC has been disconnected because of the new radio.
Her main concern was that the car hasn't been washed recently and if that's ok with me. She said it looks really great when it's clean. I told her not to worry about that.
I get there and immediately notice the faded paint, mismatched color tones from panel to panel, and misaligned hood. Upon further inspection, I see the dashboard is completely cracked up (the cracks probably share about the same surface area on the dash as the non-cracked area), the windshield has a massive crack, the driver's seat has completely busted springs on the left side and has an extreme lean, and the interior has some rips and is pretty filthy and repulsive overall. Popping the hood reveals an engine that probably has about 1/8 inch layer of dust everywhere as if it's never been serviced. The owner was very proud of the new battery though. I said "yeah, it doesn't have as much dust as the rest of the engine". Curiously the engine was already warmed up when I got there. I start it anyway and notice it's running on 4 and a half cylinders, smokes pretty bad and has an absolutely massive oil leak (nearly a constant drip) and decent blowby. I decided to take the car for a brief spin anyway since I already made the trip. Her father went with me even though I was leaving my nearly-new Jetta right in front of their house, I guess to make sure I don't steal their pristine car.
The tach was dead, the transmission shifted pretty hard and the alignment was so bad I was having troubling keeping the car on the road, especially with the cracked and filthy windshield. I turned the car around after a couple of minutes and told them it's a bit more worn out than I expected and that I will have to pass, but thanked them for their time.
They were nice, friendly people and the father even had a VW TDI similar to mine, but what's with the advertised "great condition"? What the hell are some people thinking (or smoking)? The only good thing I got out of the trip was that I got to listen to an OM617 after nearly two years. Even though there was a knock, the base sound was sweet and it reminded me how great the OM617 sounds when it's running properly. It sounds very different from any other diesel, even its sibling OM616 which I sold recently. There's a good chance I will buy another OM617 car, but it looks like I will have to wait very patiently. I'm certainly not buying any unseen car from Craigslist.
08-03-2007, 01:29 PM
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