I see a lot of debate between owners of the 140 and 220 S cars, but it seems that no one ever has bad things to say about the 126. The problem is: the newest 126's are almost 12 years old they are starting to get a little dated looking, and most of the ones I see for sale (and on the road) are "finished." I define finished as in a state of neglect and disrepair to a point whereas repair costs exceed the value of the car if it were in a respectable condition.

To the 140 owners: For someone potentially looking to upgrade sequentially to the next s-class body style (ie: me, upgrading to a 140, someday) are the later years of the cars (1997-1999) significantly improved on a reliability basis? For me to buy a 140, I would probably budget at least $30,000 and try and find something with less than 40k miles. How reasonable would it be for me to assume that a 1997 S420/500 would make it to 100k over the course of approximately five years without thousands spent in repair costs?

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2003 S500 Black/Charcoal
1990 560SEL 61k Arctic White/Grey

SOLD:
1988 420SEL Black/Palomino Sold @ 85k
1987 420SEL Midnight Blue/Grey
1986 420SEL Diamond Blue/Grey
1983 380SEL Champagne/Palomino