I've just purchased a 91' 420 SEL with 101,000 miles on it.

After reading the archives regarding guide failures, etc, I've acquired a very nervous feeling about the risk of driving it any further without getting it into a mechanic to check it out(which I plan to do in a few weeks).

However, I have a vacation planned tomorrow in which I really wanted to take the car out, forgoing cramming the family into the truck. I'd be putting on about 600-700 miles.

Would it be taking too much risk to drive it another week?

Is it unusual for the failures to occur at 100k or less, relatively speaking? Any thoughts on, at what mileage, failure typically occurs?

The car idles fine and no unusual noises at startup. Maintenance records thru 80k indicate very frequent oil changes, etc.

P.S. - And this is a great forum, thanks in advance for any opinions/thoughts.