I've owned MB diesels from 83 to 06. All have their strengths and weaknesses. The W210 (98 and 99 E300) are wonderful and can be picked up cheap...but be prepared to spend money on rust repair over the years (and the spring perches in particular are a safety concern). In the five years we've owned ours, I've probably spend $1200 solely on rust repair.

If you can spend $6-7,000, I don't see how you can do better than an 05/06 CDI (unless you need/want a car with a "retro" feel). Performance, reliability, comfort....you name it, it has it.

Don't let anyone scare you off with the SBC. It's a feature, not a flaw. Once every 200,000 miles or so the car tells you you need to replace the SBC pump. And so you do. No big deal. Better still, you rebuild both the pump and the accumulator at the same time for $430 plus labor. Hardly an expensive repair.

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14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 160k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 180k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver on Tan, 145k mi, wastegate conversion, ALDA delete

19 Honda CR-V EX 79k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife