The CRD Jeep Liberty, I beieve, has an Italian 4 cylinder engine and the Grand Cherokee has a Mercedes V6.

The same engine as the Sprinter I guess?

I bought a 2001 E320 wagon (non 4matic) a few months ago. It has some rust in the usual places (hatch and bottoms of a couple doors). Only had 134k miles on it, maintained at a dealer its whole life. Drives perfectly. The M112 and 722.6 are indestructible and have plenty of power, its faster than my 420SEL v8 while averaging 7+ more mpg. Considering a rust free example is usually thousands of miles away and 3x the price, I'll deal with some rust.

I've already put well over a thousand miles on it, its fantastic to drive! Every single option on mine works just fine, only thing I need to fix is the release lever to lower one of the rear seats flat.

I paid about 3k. If it lasts me 5 years with minimal repair costs then its easily paid for itself. I drive a lot for work and the capability to haul big heavy stuff (servers, printers...etc, is awesome!)

As for RWD vs 4matic, with a good set of tires its very difficult to get a RWD W210 stuck in the winter as it has very good traction control. Tires matter the most. I'd say snow tires + rear drive over 4matic. I do also own a 4matic wagon, and while unstoppable, its not *truly* necessary.

We have 3 E320's and one C240 (same engine and trans, smaller displacement) in the family and they've been the most reliable MB's ever. My brother has put almost 50k miles on his E320 in 3 years, only very minor maintenance and repairs to keep it in perfect condition. I've not had to fix anything on my C240 at all in over 2 years...its now just coming up on needing front ball joints.

As for Suabru's....I'd not want one in a million years. Flimsy cheap machines for way too much $$. They also get terrible mpg's vs. their medicore performance.