The 2003 and newer 220's were much better. Around here you can get the early 2000/01's pretty cheap but they all have a ton of miles on them and are in so so shape.
Last time I was at the dealer they had a 2003 S600 that was real nice, 40k miles $39k. Nice 03 and newer examples seem to still go for around $30k.
Look at it this way, a new S550 is going to cost you $100k. You buy a 5 year old S500 for $30k you are already $70k ahead. So if it costs $3k a year to fix and you keep it for 5 years, your still way ahead.
Or you can just lease the S550 for $1k a month and write the payment off.
