A 3.0 Manual with a decent looked after engine shouldn,t be sluglish, should fly, especially if your changing gears in the right rev range.
Not the fastest thing on the planet, but should still achieve 0 to 60 in around 7.5 seconds, even though its a heavy old bus.
Like I said, I stepped on the gas, then a delay, then it went. Anybody here has driven a Merc W124 or any Merc of that era? This is the best comparison I can make.
To be honest Im really not interested what a Merc W124 drives like, but short of repeating myself (again, with replies to your posts), a 3.0 Manual thats on form should not feel sluggish, could be Multi Ram failure, but you would get around that by driving in the right Rev Range, could also be poor Cambelt change, etc, etc, or number of things including the engine is shagged, who knows, best thing to do is pass on that one or put it on hold and test another as Al says.
A good 3.0 manual driven like its stolen, should put a smile on your face.
Sorry. I didn't mean to doubt you. The Merc was just a good example of how the gas pedal felt. But the car itself was not slow. I stepped on it on the motorway and when I realized I was already at 160km/h. So it goes ok. It's just the reaction to the pedal which is peculiar. But it is not slow. And I didn't drive it anywhere near as if it was stolen. It's not my car and the owner was with me.
Yes, I'm driving 2 different ones today.
And I told the guy selling the 3.0 manual of my concerns and he said he needs to get rid of it so I'm free to make him an offer. He has 3 at the moment. This one plus a estate and he just got another estate because he wanted an automatic. So he wants to get rid of the manual.
So I'm tempted to give it another look after I have driven the other two, so I can have some reference. If he accepts me spending some good time with it to give it a good look over. He already said it's ok for me to take it to a garage to look at what will need to be done for MOT, which is due next month. If all is ok and checks out and he accepts an offer which makes up for the damage door, cracked widnscreen etc. And he puts in the new steering pump he has, I may risk and buy it.