88 240DL, TMU (true miles unknown--nonfunctional odometer), florida car...

I'd say you didn't get hurt a bit. Maybe the thing has 200k... but if it runs and drives well, has a good set of rubber, and doesn't need a lot of work, you really can't go wrong. Shop the car lots and classifieds--look at some of the tired crap that sells for around $1000.

You could DUMP $1000 on a big car repair, so that sure isn't much for a whole car.

A year and a half ago, the dealer I worked for sold two 89s that we bought at the same auction. One had 200k, the other had 90k. The 90k one sold immediately, for $4000 even. And it was a good price for a really pretty car. Ran like a million bucks, super clean, non smoker, no rust. The 89 was a garage-kept car, tinted windows, R134a A/C that worked well, and had a rock solid engine. A little bit looser than the low mile one, but pretty nice. Sold almost immediately: $1895. One of them we threw a set of balljoints on, and the other, we didn't even have to touch. Paid $900 for the high mileage one, and stole the other one for $1400 or something like that. Basically, even if the thing has 200k, it looks decent, and if it runs well and lasts for a while, you did fine.

Also, my brother bought a POS 240 wagon from my dealer friend for $1400. And I mean, a POS. When my brother was looking for cars, the dealer said, "I have that shitbox 240 out in front of the lot." He bought it after we test drove it for two blocks. New clutch. It ran OK, but needed a timing belt and a couple other things. It ran horribly rich when he got it. It had ALL NEW ignition parts, because someone who didn't know what they were doing, replaced everything (including idle motor and a bunch of other stuff) before they dumped it, probably because it failed smog. I put an airflow meter in ($75), my brother dumped a converter into it, and a set of front brakes, and two tires. I put in new heater hoses for his birthday, and he went to Europe one summer, and I put in a new battery, new cables, a tune up, and some other things that amounted to not much. I put in a T-belt, and motor mounts, at my own expense (he was still in college) but it cost almost nothing anyway. And I changed his oil a few times at my own expense. Any way you cut it, he spent $2000 on his car, and it has lasted him for FIVE YEARS. And I never got a single call from him saying his car wouldn't start. Because it ALWAYS started, ran, and drove.

Not bad, for about $500 a year, for his "shitbox" Volvo. I expect him to get at least a few hundred when he sells it, because my parents gave him a 1990 245DL with a whole 130k on the clock. I'm sure he'll squeeze another ten years out of that car. But with the few hundred back on his 88, he spent less than two grand to drive for five years.

My point is, you might see a lot of service from that car, for what amounts to a lot of car for the price. You do hear reports of people here getting $50 "perfectly good cars", but that phrase is really overused, and those cars are not "perfectly good". (Except gifts of perfectly good cars, which in my brother's case, is almost perfect.)

In my own long winded way, I'm saying I think you got a square deal.
--
Chris Herbst, near Chicago.