Entire supercharger and clutch assemblies are readily available from low mileage, wrecked cars on the used market in the $500 range. The supercharger and clutch are actually quite robust though. Both are commonly rebuilt and available in rebuilt form.

MB does not list a service interval for the supercharger, but many other mfgs with the Eaton supercharger list an oil change at 100K miles. The oil in the gearbox is a special oil and costs about $20 for four ounces, enough to change the oil.

Removing the air box provides easy access so that the old oil can be withdrawn and replaced with a syringe. If this is done every 100k miles and the engine does not live it's life at high RPM, it will last a LONG time.

The 230 engines themselves have also proven QUITE robust, with no known achilles heels like many other engine families.

The cars themselves, with a manual transmission, if you can find one, are a HOOT to drive as long as you have a rear sway bar. The rear sway bar was standard in the 2001 models and beyond. The earlier cars are a pain to retrofit, and in hard cornering, it does have some understeer without enough power to eliminate it with the loud pedal.

You could stiffen the rear springs and accomplish the same handling improvement if you are willing to deal with the obviously stiffer ride.

All in all, there are lots of these little cars around to be had for cheap. I paid $6500 for mine and have not had to put anything into it except fresh fluids, spark plugs and filters like I do with ANY used car I buy, plus I rebuilt two of the top hydraulic cylinders for $55 each.

It now serves me as a really fun and economical car to wind out the 20 miles of lightly traveled, winding, hilly road to and from work every day.

Anyone condemning these cars as problem ridden either had bad luck, or just don't know what their talking about. My brother in law, a long time MB dealer diagnostic tech, says that these are as trouble free as any MB he's seen introduced in the last fifteen years or so.