With the W201 and W202, keep this in mind. Being at the entry level model has some disadvantages when the car enters the resale market. With each successive buyer, the acquisition cost for the next buyer keeps going down, which has been shown to be a detriment to those buyers spending the requisite amounts to keep the car well maintained, compared to "original owners" who remember what they paid for the car.

Another thing to keep in mind. You're better off with the end years of the production compared to the early. So, for the W201 the 90-93 models benefit from all the annual production changes. In the W202, clearly the 98-00 models had less complaints than the earlier ones, particularly with the biodegradable wire harnesses.