well, I bought a 1990 300 a couple of years ago and it took me awhile to get my chops down on it repair wise as it was my first mercedes after many bmws. it was frustrating at first to get him straightened out but now that he is stable i much prefer him to my wifes bmw 325i....actually it's an excellently constucted automobile, not a sports car, but extremely solid to the point of being goofy. this thing is a brick and easy to drive and very comfortable as well as being inexpensive to maintain if you do most of it yourself. here's a stupid, non-relavent, example of mercedes vs bmw part costs. i was screwing around with the hood ornament star for the 300 and it came apart by accident...no way i could get it back together...finally said screw it and went to the local mb dealer and bought a new one for $30 and they installed it. the wifes bmw needs a new hood badge and that's $40 from the dealer, not even close in value and complexity to the mb part....not even close... i would recommend the 300e W124 as a solid car as well as investment if you are willing to work with it until you get it where you want it.....i could ram my 325i with this 300TE and probably not even notice, this is solid framed monster..i dig mine at least