I bought a 1994 E420 with 107k miles two weeks ago, you probably already know this but definitely get a prepurchase inspection by a independent dealer.

You've listed all the car's known weaknesses already. Another thing to check is the lifters or oil tubes, when I had my ppi done, this was the only problem the independent mechanic found apart from needing brakes, I was told the problem would cost $1600 to fix.

I bought the car anyway bcuz the dealer gave me a discount based on that after some haggling. After posting a message to this forum, I was told MB issued a service bulletin about this and I'm taking to car to MB Autowerks tommorow to get the lifter problem fixed, should cost $600. The MB dealer should fix this for free if it needs to be fixed.

The car hasn't given me any problems at all, the only thing is a diesel engine (ka, ka, ka) sound every once in a while, fixing the lifters/oil tubes tommorow should stop this.