Faults:

Small fan belt for A/C fans was detached at purchase, unknown to everybody, as nobody knows it is there!

Fan belt tensioner damper noisy; easily cured using the car's own toolkit and £26 in parts

General Comments:

Huge feelgood factor, feels immensely strong and secure to drive, like it is invincible.

Small boot with factory fitted optional 80L fuel tank, however this provides great cruising range.

Automatic child seat recognition is very handy.

The 3.0 turbo diesel gives fantastic performance and economy, reliability is well proven, and it's cheap to maintain. However it takes 7.5 litres of oil.

Very fast car for what it is; a little diesely in terms of smoke on kickdown, but shifts like scalded cat.

Air con could be better despite a service; otherwise very easy to maintain.

Apparently prone to rusting, our example is a UK car since new, but has only minor blistering; less so than our 1999 Vectra and our 1998 5 Series BMW.

Fantastic speakers despite being basic Classic spec.

Handles better than a 5 Series of the same age, due to less roll oversteer, although the large steering wheel takes a bit to get used to.

TD models have Parameter steering as standard, which is very light at parking speeds and not much heavier when cruising; again an acquired taste, but makes moving this large car about very easy, and I personally love it; every other car feels heavy and truck like now!

Fantastic MB brakes as usual, and a feeling of generally being bank vault tough; whether it is or not is irrelevant, it feels so, and therefore is a proper Benz!

Faults:

Front wheel bearings (at about 165000).

Fuel tank needed reworking (wouldn't feed last 1/4 tank, known recall issue).

Very slow A/C leak, treated with sealer.

Right rear window regulator needed replacing at around 175000 miles.

General Comments:

This car has been absolutely solid and reliable.

It handles very well and is remarkably comfortable on long trips.

Even at 185000 miles, it runs like new. It gets around 28 MPG on the freeway, and looks great inside and out.

I upgraded the tires and wheels, mounting S-Class wheels with tires that had the same OD as the originals. These noticeably improved the ride, which was a bit harsh with the original 17" AMG wheels. Now it is very smooth and comfortable at any speed.

According to Consumer Reports, these have above average electrical issues, but I have never had even a hint of one.

Paid $7000 a few years ago, and could probably get close to that now.

Faults:

The original CD player stopped working after 4 years.

The doors rusted around the rubber seals after 8 years.

The driver's side window mechanism has been replaced after 10 years. Now the switch needs replacement.

The paint on the switches wears badly; so much that they turn white in less than 10 years of (not much) use.

There was a huge fuel leak in the high-pressure part of the fuel system after a visit to the dealer about a worn clutch.

General Comments:

The car feels as heavy as it really is.

The suspension rolls and squats far too much for it to be a "sporting version".

The front seats were designed for fat people, so, they feel more like bench seats as a skinny occupant will slide around the leather seats.

Braking is good, but has failed at least once.

Fuel economy is very good for the weight of the car.

It doesn't drip, but it does burn a lot of oil.

The "self adjusting" headlights aim too near.