'91 200q update

["Gaidos, A." <agaidos@got.net>]

All,
 We've had our glacier blue '91 200q for a couple weeks now. As beautiful as
the car looks it hasn't been all roses. The original sale went smooth enough
althought there were a couple "surprises" I had not expected - like finding
out the car was out of state, east coast no less or that the driver's seat
heater did not work. I had been told that everything on the car had been
fixed. This was not the case.
 The next evening when I went to take a neighbor for a spin I was embarassed
to find it had a flat tire. As the first week passed it became clear the
radio had a terminal problem too. I also discovered that the speedo reads
fast, a dash light is out and braking from freeway speed causes some
pulsating from the UFOs.  After a little deeper digging I discovered that at
83K miles the timing belt hadn't been replaced either.
 Well due to the east coast life of the car the timing belt job became a
major hassle. The road salts have had no effect on 99% of the car but any
unprotected nut, bolt, clamp or hose is corroded. Something I am not
accustom to seeing here in California and I'm pissed at myself for not
noticing when I inspected the car. Live and learn.
 Needless to say we were very disappointed. We probably paid $2K above
market for the car because we wanted one that needed nothing and was in
perfect condition. That turned out not to be the case. We probably shouldn't
have paid more then $11.5 for the car.
 The bright side to all this is the seller is going to replace the radio
with a new one and cover some of the timing belt replacement cost. He will
also sell me any parts I need at cost which will be a huge help when I start
replacing all the rusted parts. He has also offered to make any repairs at
not charge in his shop. Unfortunately his shop isn't very close to me.
 So anyway, at least we now have a very pretty car for my wife. It has lots
of power and is cosmetically near perfect. And compared to a BMW or
Mercedes, we got one hell of a lot of car for the money. The seller seems
willing to make right the things that are broken and the car is starting to
grow on my wife. Life is improving.
Anton