W211 wagon? I’m looking for the same car rn and the $5k cars seem pretty beat up, whereas the $8-$11k seem more promising but kind of a lot for a 20 year old car.

Seems ‘06 is the most problematic year, ‘09 the best, but overall seems solid for $5k with solid maintenance records. Unfortunately most cars tend to need fairly big maintenance every 100k mi, and most of these fall out of the regular schedule as a 3rd or 4th car of elderly owners.

The Mercedes of my childhood.

I’ve driven a W126 for 6 years (‘82 300SD + ‘90 420SEL), and it’s the it’s an incredibly nice place to spend time, with tons of room in the back for kids on car seats. It’s a great platform and will definitely get a a 500SEC in the future.

Currently cross shopping S124 and S211, and going to go with an ‘09 E350 4matic wagon bc they’re somehow the same price range as the crazy inflation on W124s

My wife likes old chevys, but the build quality and reliability of MB is so much better, it’s not even close