A much more pratical car is the E class circa 2003 on, a 220 cdi has standard rear suspension buy one with 16" tyres then you have a large economical car that will not cost the earth to run.

Edited by Collos25 on 30/12/2011 at 14:11

A 2003 E-Class is probably about the worst built car you can buy, including a Trabant.

I'd avoid any W211 E-Class before 2006 model year.

In the price bracket mentioned you should be looking at the current W221 S-Class, not the older W220. They are nice cars and far better than what went before - at that mileage I'd go petrol and look for one with a few miles on it (80k-100k) with full Mercedes history and some nice options.

No point in paying a big premium for low mileage at 8k a year as it will lose a lot of money just sitting there.

.

Have you ever owned one I doubt it because you are talking rubbish.

Yes, I know the cars well. They're very poor with lots of designed in faults, not bad when they work but a car Mercedes openly acknowledged was their nadir.

Thanks for all replies and gratefully noted.

Very few petrol unless 5 litre which really are an overkill.

Was hoping for advice/info re regen cycle as I understand fixing this afterwards can be a £1000 bill.

Ideally would like a trade in ex Merc dealer but dealers will not sell many/any cars over 3 year old but may try and cultivate local dealer Newcastle on tyne who may point me in direction of private trade in with proper pre sale independent inspection and 12 month warranty purchase.

realise after a year you are in lap of gods anyway.

thanks again