I bought a 2008 E320 BT from a MBCA member here in SC in March. 179k miles when I bought it, in excellent condition.

Yes I had to do the 722.9 conductor plate. At the dealer. It costs $1700 with MBCA discount. Before they committed to the replacement they read adaptations and said the transmission still had plenty of life left. If I had a personal lift I would have rolled the dice on eBay sensors.

If your 722.9 shifts like crap take it to a dealer and have them reflash the VGS firmware. There is an update that addressed rough 1-2-3 up and down shifts. I’ve had it done to all 3 of my 722.9 equipped vehicles and it really helped. Unfortunately you can’t do this with a bootleg Xentry as it has to phone home to validate the update.

Oil cooler seals done at Indy by prior owner. I would not have minded doing it again myself if needed, I did it on my ML, and it was not nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

The only thing I don’t like is the 15 year old technology in the stereo system. But it’s better looking than the iPad glued to the dash setup in the new models.

No AdBlue, just a DPF that has to regen occasionally.

The best benefit of a 2007+: they went back to real brakes!

I have no regrets so far and I love it.

__________________
The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech