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Just thought you might be interested in my recent experience joining the world of 240 driver/maintainers, as it sounds that you're likely to do.
Late September, I bought my first 240. It's a 1992 240GL sedan w/ an almost perfect interior visually, but a lot of the usual buzzes and rattles. I knew up on the test drive it had some issues (leaking exhaust manifold at the head and at the header, extreme pulsing in the brakes), but it had relatively low miles (136K) and was fairly solid. Some rust in the corners of the doors, but nothing major underneath. The dealer (a young college kid w/ a newly-obtained dealer license) was asking $1395, and I offered him $900. We settled on $1000; I though I did pretty well.
I'm still happy, but there's lots of things to do to bring a potentially neglected car back up to snuff. In hindsight, I probably could have beat him down another couple hundred. I've spent about another $900 in parts (some of which were NOT necessary, but I'm about to send the car to another state w/ my son so I replaced a bunch of things that MIGHT eventually need replacing rather than saddle him w/ potential problems in the next year or so), and maybe 20 hours of work. New front rotors/calipers/pads, one brake line, new ABS tone wheels on both front hubs (rusted to crap), and new studs on one hub (some gorilla had stripped them w/ an impact wrench). New engine mounts. New exhaust manifold gasket, studs, nuts, manifold-to-header gasket, studs, nuts. New intake manifold gasket, throttle body gasket. New heater return coolant pipe. That was all stuff that needed doing immediately. I've also replaced all the hoses, fuel filter, air filter, airbox thermostat(frozen), preheat hose (missing). None of that was immediately critical, but a good idea. Timing belt, front seals, water pump, ATF filter and fluid change. Probably a couple other things I haven't mentioned, but you get the idea. The car was up on stands while I worked on it a couple hours each afternoon for three weeks. Now, it runs like a champ but I still should start in on the suspension; it's pretty shot.
Sound like bad news? Not really. What other car could you do all of that yourself, actually enjoy doing it, and still spend less than $2000 total including buying the car outright? The other folks are dead on.. check for rust. Pretty much anything else can be fixed by us regular folk.
If the car is fairly rust free, starts well, runs fairly well, stops when you step on the brake pedal, and turns in the same direction you're turning the steering wheel.. well... you'll be able to take care of what it needs.
FWIW, I'm actively looking for another one already. Any leads on a '91-93 240 GL? (grin)
Best wishes,
Barry
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