Have you considered a 4 cylinder C-Class? I believe in North America the only one you got was the C230. In Australia we got the C180, C200, C220 and C230, all 4 cylinder. The fours offer much the same car as the C280 except for the performance of the six, and importantly, without those annoying faults that the six suffered. Here the fours way outnumber the sixes, and they have a good reputation. The other option is the later M112 V6 available from 1997 in the C240 and C280 that replaced the M104 inline six C280.

__________________
107.023: 350SLC, 3-speed auto, icon gold, parchment MBtex (sold 2012 after 29 years ownership).
107.026: 500SLC, 4-speed auto, thistle green, green velour.
124.090: 300TE, 4-speed auto, arctic white, cream-beige MBtex.
201.028: 190E 2.3 Sportline, 5-speed manual, arctic white, blue leather.
201.028: 190E 2.3, 4-speed auto, blue-black, grey MBtex.
201.034: 190E 2.3-16, 5-speed manual, blue-black, black leather.