Originally Posted by Hirnbeiss

M113 engines are very reliable, with none of the weaknesses you mention. Of course, going into 160k +miles leaves the door open for anything. Absolutely get an inspection before buying, especially with the stuck SRS light. Mercedes and S class are favorites for being sold with hidden problems.

Originally Posted by Brian77

I had a 5.0L engine in my '06 CLK, and it was a great car. IMO, you should search for either an older or newer car versus '00-'01, especially as the S-Class first arrived here for MY '00 and that Mercedes designed it with extremely complicated electrical systems that were state of the art at the time. I would be afraid of problems creeping up with the air suspension that both the S430 and S500 share and other 10+ year old electronic components and their associated costs to fix.

I owned a '02 Mercedes that was a CPO car but had serious reliability issues that should not be expected from a car that had 30K miles when purchased. It had problems with its paint, transmission, A/C, electronic dash vents, seats, various oil leaks, numerous suspension components, etc. Did not give me confidence that it would last 300K miles like the older ones. As I recall, Mercedes cost cutting on its parts and over complication of their electronic components and the resulting quality problems in the early part of last decade were well documented at the time. Not that all Mercedes of this era had dismal reliability (heard some good things about the '00-'02 E-Class and my friend had a '01 CLK that was bought new and had decent reliability) but many of them appeared more problem prone. I also note that both of these models had been out for a few years already by the early '00's, so there was time to work out the reliability kinks.

My '06 seemed to be much better put together for some reason.