Hi, my name is Jason, I'm 20 and I live near Seattle, WA. All of my driving days I have been driving "Rice-Boy" cars, my current car is a 95 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX turbo AWD with a crazy body kit, painted BRIGHT orange, looks good to me and lots of other people my age, but I think I am finally growing out of my "race anyone who looks at me wrong" phase. I just want a classy car that I don't have to worry about people wanting to race me every 5 minutes. Ok now that I'm done with the intro (sorry) here is my question:

I'm looking at 92-95 W140 300SE, S320, S420. From what I have read in the forum the 6 cyl motors are underpowered for these big S-Class Mercedes, but honestly I don't care, as long as I can get onto the freeway safely it's fine, (I don't need a fast car anymore, if I keep at my current pace I am seriously going to probably kill myself).

I really can't go any higher than $27,500 or so. I will probably only get $15k or $16k for my Eclipse so I can't get a $40k S500 or anything like that. The one's I have been looking at average about 65,000 miles, and they run anywhere from $19k on up to $28k or so, I want to spend about $25k. What kind of problems are inherent to these cars, and are these problems easily solvable by a dealer mechanic (and not TOO expensive)??

I guess really what I want to know is if I go out and buy (just for example) a 1994 S320 with 80k-90k miles, what am I getting myself into? I know it depends on how well the car was maintained, but I am trying to make my question as general as possible.

Any input greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jason Garrett