Mark,

In my opinion the best route to take in buying a used ML is to get one under factory warranty (at least 6 months left on the clock) and then research this site for all the issues and then take the list to a MB dealer and get them all fixed under the factory warranty. I bought a used 2000 ML320 from Carmax with 8 months left on the factory warranty and fixed all the issues as I described above. I now have a great vehicle that I love to drive that I bought for a reasonable price. With ML's having a 4 year, 50K mile factory warranty you would need to be looking for a 2001 or later to do the same.