Well, I went yesterday evening to see a potential purchase; 1991 300E 3.0. black/tan interior

INTERIOR-Good condition, 75K miles, no tears on leather, driver side door panel has a seperation about 4 inches long and about 1/8" gap.
-Center console- the wood has two portions missing about 2-3" in diameter each, right behind the shifter; not sure how that could happen.
-Steering wheel - Is it leather? b/c it was all pretty worn . I have seen a Chevy Montecarlo with the leather wrap steering wheel w/106K miles and not near this much wear. Typical? Electric steering wheel control seems to work fine
-A/C, electric seats, windows - all seem to work ok. Radio - The antena made a noise when going up. Didn't see if it was getting stuck as I was driving the car at the time. Sunroof seems to work fine.

EXTERIOR- car slept indoors, which is indicative of the general condition of the paint - still good paint. Has 1-2 chips on driver side door and 1-2 on the passenger side - no big deal. BUT, driver side rear, just above the tail lights, there is a some body work needed. It has a dent about the size / depth of a Motorola StarTac cell phone (not deep in other words). So, have to take into account cost to fix/paint that section (they'll probably want to paint the whole quarter panel ).
-On the passenger side rear wheel well (right were the door closes more or less) it has a dent about 6" long (under the plastic trim piece). They have the trim piece new to replace, so, I might be able to put it back on without fixing this dent for now...something I can live with. BTW, the rear driver side lights were replaced.
-Trunk was just as clean as the interior.

MAINTAINANCE- Well, they have the maintainance book filled in up to 1995-1996 by local MB dealers. Then the owner said, since the car was out of warranty, she had one of the mechanics from the dealer start working on the car for her, so no records nor receipts . She said I could talk to the guy, but that would be USELESS in my decision making stage, as she is his customer, and he isn't going to say something like, "oh, I told her to sell it b/c it sucks". I will talk to him if I buy, just see what he has to say, but not to make a buying decision.

She said they just spent about$2K- $3K in the a/c and something in the motor, but had no clue. Guess it would be the evaporator and maybe the headgasket...just guessing, as she had no clue .

MISC - She has a store next to my freind's store, and my freind clearly remembers when she bought the car in 1991, so that confirms the one owner deal. She is selling it b/c she bought a used S430.

My freind brought up a VALID point in reference to the head gasket deal. He reminded me when was the last time I or he had a head gasket failure at or below 100K miles. He is right, why is the M103 so crappy that the head gasket would fail so soon ?

There is no way to verify if the a/c work was the evaporator is there? I mean if you have to take the dash out to exchange it, how would you be able to visually tell if it was changed?

They want $8K for the car. Does anybody have the black book price on the car? Kelly and Edmunds gave me two different prices that were off by $2K

So, I am thinking offer $7K, get it for $7K or $7.5K, and have to spend maybe $400-$500 and that rear body work (the one the size of the cell phone). BUT, I have seen advertised locally 91 300E for about $8K-$9K(not sure on mileage, haven't called), so the price might not be such a great deal.

Then, the crazier idea I had was........ instead of making an offer and then taking it to the dealer for the pre-purchase inspection, make the deal more attractive to the and just check the compression on the car myself, and off them $7K with the money in hand, so it might be easier for them to say yes and gamble any major problems (ie: head gasket / evaporator) which could equal the $1K I would save.

Oh one more thing.... I didn't notice any hesitation off the line, so I assume it was a later 91 and has first gear start.

Thoughts?

thanks