I'm considering selling my 92 300E with 112K miles and moving up to a ML320 series. Knowing that there are many MB Forum members out there who either are currently owners or have owned a ML. Which of the earlier ML320's were the best as for performance, overall owners satisfaction or which year to stay away from and why? I want to stay between the 2000 and 2004 model years.

tarheel75

Read for a good start.

As long as the vehicle has had all of the problem areas fixed and has been well maintained by one owner you generally won't have any problems beyond the standard ongoing issues (e.g. brake switch, CPS, MAS) that are fairly cheap and quick fixes.

A 2004 with 60k miles versus a 2000 with 60k miles is probably going to last you the same amount of time. The 2004 just didn't have as many defective parts designed by the engineers. But as long as those parts were all changed out in the earlier model the reliability is the same. In fact there is one view that the 2000 may be a bit more reliable as some of the parts are newer .

Just watch out for vehicle owners that got tired of being ripped off by the dealers and so stopped doing necessary repairs or who passed it on to their teenager who didn't have a clue about how to maintain a vehicle.

If possible find a later model that has the DVD navigation rather than the CD. The switchover was in 2002 or 2003 IIRC. The older design uses an obsolete signalling scheme and the only replacement parts available are from old units. Plus you need a stack of CDs for the navigation when traveling. All of the regions database fits on a single DVD.