W210 and Maintence

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I've owned a 1996 E300 for about 34 months. I really enjoy driving the car, but I am somewhat troubled by the amount of maintenance involved so far. The car has about 154,000 miles on it and my mileage has been relatively low, about 12,000 miles a year. Almost all of my maintenance is done by an independent Mercedes mechanic. I like my mechanic and I do consider them fair and great to deal with.

This is my first Mercedes. I listened to a lot of friends warn me that this would be an expensive car to operate. None of these people actually own or have owned Mercedes. As a result of all this "free advice", I've been tracking my repair and maintenance costs since I bought the car. I quess that I wanted to prove them wrong and I also wanted to know how this car compared to some of my previous vehicles.

My maintenance including oil changes (petro oil, every 3,000 miles) is running at $126 per month. This does not factor in cost of the vehicle, insurance, fuel, washing, etc. Most of this money has gone to repairs.

Here's my question. Is this amount high or average (or low) for this vehicle? How does it compare to the older diesels? What's the opinions of other diesel owners?