Talking about owning a Benz, I bought a 1994 C180 188,000kms last year from a shifty used dealer and had to do quite a bit of jobs to fix things since then. I failed to have it checked by an independent inspector and took it as is. So far, I have had to do the following:-

full lubrication service, oil change, brake fluid change, power steering fluid top up/checks, transmission fluid top up/checks, new OEM air filter and sparks.
Alarm system checked and serviced
aircon checked and serviced.
all brakes checked and missing wear sensors installed.
front bushes looked bad from under, replaced.
all four wheel covers replaced-cosmetic.
windscreen wiper blade replaced.
leaking water pump and noisy tensioner replaced.
worn serp. belt. replaced.
battery totally flat replaced.
blown rear brake lamp replaced.
blown rear ceiling courtesy lamp bulb replaced.
some fuses replaced.
2 leaking vacuum actuators under the dash replaced.
a couple of dash bulbs replaced.
coolant tank cap replaced.
fuel pump and filter replaced, but wasn't necessary. Conned by indie!
replaced whole exhaust system, main muffler went south.
regreased sunroof/moonroof rails.
replaced left front door RV mirror console previously damaged.
replaced radio aerial and plastic trace, popped out.
removed golfball dents in front hood and respray .
resprayed front bumper and side mouldings.

tinted all windows except front as an extra.
put in front and back seat covers.

extra future work:-
change all 4 rotors and pads.
change all 4 shocks, rears have oily traces.
change damaged rear boot locking mech.-still works though.
dash centre airflow roller jammed open permanently-luckily.
alloy rims and wider tyres-now OEM 15"steels with 195s.
change speakers which are not efficient enough.
Have almost new condition Pioneer 12disc CD player Carrozzeria CDX-P1200 for rear boot with missing plastic CD tray and also almost new condition Pioneer High Power Super Tuner 111 , KEH-P4750 waiting to be installed. No speakers yet.

The above fixes were not really major, mostly ignored by hopeless PO.

So anyone out there looking to buy a high mileage Benz, please check it out completely and make sure you have a few spare bucks up your sleeve to do all the required fixes, ignored by the PO.