Looking at a1990 mercedes 300 E 2.6
 

I am looking at buying a 1990 mercedes 300 E 2.6 - about 115K miles. The vendor is asking around 4K for it, which seems reasonable to me. Seats are manually operated, which is a big plus for me - the less mechanical the better. if it had a manual sunroof id be happier

From what I gather, the car came out before the wire harness issue. Were there any other known issues with this model year. I will be going through the service records to look for transmission and head gasket issues. Visual inspection of the engine showed a clean engine, little corrosion.

Will take it for an inspection before buying, but wanted to know if anyone had any useful input to share. I suspect I could be looking at a new transmission/rebuild by 200K miles, but not sure what else

Hi,
From some research I did on the web...

Spend some time with the car on and messing with all settings/buttons on the climate control system. If it constantly blows out the defrost vents on all settings--as mine does--that means the air distribution pod things are faulty. To actually get it fixed would be a LOT of money (dash must come out, and the parts ain't cheap--I've heard it's an all-day job at MB tech wages). For now I'm driving mine as is, since both the A/C and heater works (albeit, the A/C isn't as cold as I'd like).

When you turn the ignition on, ALL "idiot" lights should light up. If one doesn't--such as the SRS or ABS--it might indicate that particular system is faulty.

Check all the windows if they're electric. Two of mine were bad when I bought it, and a 3rd one went bad in the first month of owning--only one was the switch, the other two were the regulator/motor ($). :(

I think you're right, I believe it was '92 or so when the biodegradeable wiring harness issue came into play, but someone more knowledgeable than me might chime in.

Good luck to you, hope it works out for you!

I would post a pic of mine, but since I already did so in another post, it won't let me (that's pretty lame by the way...).