ElRojo, thanks for the good advice. I've read the newb forum buyer's guide, there are some additional links there that no longer work.
I've been looking at these cars all over the net, and the spread is huge. The previous comments about this car are very informative, I especially like the one about bad karma over the car sitting on spares.
The original C/L ad didn't mention the exhaust, the seller said to me that the car IS Euro, and was up in the pix so as to check exhaust. He said as well that since these pix, he loaned the car to a friend who took it a distance down south and back.
I have learned long ago to believe far more what I can see with my own eyes than what a seller speaks.
My situation is recently I found that I have some health problems that do not affect my ability to work on cars, however do shorten my life expectancy a good bit. Since I could drive, I have owned some great (and not-so-great) special interest cars. I loved all the 6 coupes I had, and surely should have kept the M6, however with BMW it's "been there, done that" already. So...I remember the big Benz coupe.....to me these always had a road presence, thus here I am ready to jump in. I'd like to own one more fine German car before it is my time.
From what I have seen recently in both private sale and Ebay.....I feel that I may spend 5-7K on a car and still need go through the rubber, frontend, brakes, steering and so forth increasing my investment well beyond the point of return. This 80K coupe at least has low miles and price.....and I'm going in with my eyes open. I live in Massachusetts, I have use of a pickup and car trailer, worst case is I've spent some money for tolls and gas and go home with an empty trailer as the thought of this giving trouble on the road if I drove her home........ even though I have been with AAA a long time...enough to get a 200 mile tow.... that would put me home with the car.
So, I'll give the karma wheel a spin and see where it stops, and I'll surely post here on my experiences this coming Wednesday.
Best,
Paul