300e is gone looking at 300d
 

The wife's 300e blew the head gasket after 215000 miles and she definately wants another Benz. I hate to get rid of the 300e, everything is in pretty good shape for the age('90)! Anyway I want to start looking at diesels and would like to know if there are any particular years and models That I should be wary of. Would really like tom find something with no more than 50 t0 80,000 on it.
Thanks!

I would be looking for a 95 E300D It has an aspirated 6 cylinder diesel, non-turbo. This is the last of the 124 model MB cars, same body as your 300E but with remodeled grill and lights. These cars deliver great fuel economy and will very likely go 400K to 500K with proper maint. You may expect to pay anywhere from $8,000 to $14,000 with lower mileage.

How difficult is it/expensive to replace the head gasket? Surely you don't trash the car because of a head gasket.

Thanks for the replys. No, I do not want to get rid of the car, but while repairing the head I asked for a quote to also replace the timing chain, chain tentioner, waterpump and radiator. All are original and with 215 k miles on it I thought these would be good to replace. the total came back $2300.00.

I found a 95 300d with 160000 miles on it. Asking price is 8500.00. What do you consider lower milage?

It all depends on what you want to pay:
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=187623271&dealer_id=56764180&car_year=1995&make=MB&distance=0&lang=en&max_price=&mode l=E300D&end_year=1995&min_price=&certified=&bkms=1124907210722&address=06460&search_type=both&advanc ed=&start_year=1995&isp=y&cardist=2462

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=187631798&dealer_id=56765545&car_year=1995&make=MB&distance=0&lang=en&max_price=&mode l=E300D&end_year=1995&min_price=&certified=&bkms=1124907210722&address=06460&search_type=both&advanc ed=&start_year=1995&isp=y&cardist=2458

I would consider 200k miles or less to be average.