Hello all,

I've been tooling around on the Diesel forum for awhile, and I have been toying with many different ideas of what to get for my second car considering that my last one, a 1989 VW Jetta with 300K miles on it, is being put out to pasture. It's a great car, and I'll always drive German cars, but I think I want something different this time.

I really like driving manual tranmissions, and honestly, almost every Mercedes that is older has shifted too firmly. Yes, I understand that this is a vacuum issue, but honestly, I've been in many, and you can't tell me that ALL of them have vacuum issues...oh, what I would do for a W126 300SD manual.

I LOVE the 240D 4-speed, but honestly, for a long commute, the gearing is a little, actually no, a lot on the high-strung side. The W123 is pure Benz, though.

That being said, here is the car I'm looking at, and drove today:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/car/400916305.html

The basics:








It's a 1985 190E 2.3, 5-speed.

It has a hair under 200K on a WORKING odometer. It runs great, and it shifts well too, and didn't get hung up in the gears. The clutch is pretty new, and feels like it too, with good take-up that isn't very late in the pedal travel.

It ran well, didn't overheat (duh) and didn't move past the halfway mark in the temperature gauge.

The clock worked.

The CD player had a CD stuck in it for long term food storage = needs new radio, though the AM/FM worked fine.

Mirrors worked.

Central locking worked, but was a tad slow.

The clearcoat is blah. A paint job is a must.

There isn't any rust.

The rims are off of a W126. I actually like them.

The right rear window is shot, by all accounts it looks like the regulator is gone (I'm coming from VW - this is not a foreign concept).

The A/C had $1200 worth of work done, according to the owner - and still doesn't blow coldly.

I think the strut bump stops are worn out, because the car made banging noises that sounded like, well, worn strut bump stops, when we went over bad pavement.

The headrests didn't move with the electric motor, but everything else did.

The wood surrounding the shifter was lifting up from the console surround, and the hazard flasher switch didn't work. The blinkers worked though via the stalk on the steering column.

Horn worked.

Sunroof worked.

So MercedesShop forum - help!

I REALLY liked this car, and I'm comparing it to an E30 BMW 325e or 318i, an E28 528e, a MKIII Jetta GL, or possibly, possibly, a 240D 4-speed.

If I do buy this car, what's a reasonable offer, and what should I go about fixing first?

How much is a reasonable paint job?