[Becketts_Pen]

The odometer says 165,000 Kms...

However, when I showed it to the independant Merc guy, he believed it had been clocked, and that I should add another 100K... (His logic was that any car with so few 'genuine' miles would still have its service history)...

So we're looking at about 260K Kms...

Which sounds about right for a timing chain replacement...

I know I took a risk as she didn't have a SH, but I got her for such a good price (3000 Euros) that it was worth it...

She's currently having the chain replaced and a full service/diagnostics to check for impending problems by an independant specialist who's as crazy about the W126 as me... he knows them inside out...

Hopefully I'll end up with no more than another 1000-1500 Euros of work to get her up to scratch, which will mean I'll have spent 5000 Euros in total... and she should go another 200K Kms without any more major work...

Her previous owner didn't really know what he had... he saw it as an expensive, fuel guzzling luxury compared to his diesel Renault Picasso people-carrier... and was so keen to see the back of it, he was ready to accept almost any offer...

She's 1991 and originally from Italy (not Germany, as I stated in an earlier post)... apart from the dodgy odometer reading, she looks great... all stock (even has the rare trip computer - which I still don't fully understand), and the Becker Mexico... though that'll be going very shortly...

I'm quite keen on keeping her as original as possible...

I love a lot of the mods I've seen on this forum... but it seems that the originals are now almost the minority...

I can see the benefit of lowering the suspension and changing the tyres etc... but as I'm not a fast driver... I'm not sure I'd really notice the benefits for all their worth...

I'll get some photos soon, and post them up...