Douglas, I used a guy named Al Mercer. He is an appraiser, but did a good job for me. He did the inspection on my SL when I bought it in St. Louis and he supported me in getting a 25% price reduction following his 3 hour survey.
He is not a Mercedes expert, but I was impressed that he seemed to have done his homework before our meeting.
He lives in St. Charles, Mo. His website has his number:
http://www.i-van.org/mercer.htmIf your friend is buying from one of the dealers there, have him contact me directly and I'll give him feedback on the dealer I used if it's the same one...I's best that I not post my comments directly on the forum.
Regards,
Chris Tietz
email is "chris AT tietz DOT com" (substitute the correct characters for AT and DOT)