Faults:

Crankshaft pulley recall - 85,000.

Mass air flow sensor - 85,000 (my fault... I touched it).

Electronic key failure at 87,000 (they get old and need to get replaced.. Mine was the original key).

General Comments:

My Mercedes Benz is a fabulous car! I absolutely love it. And even with the small things that have gone wrong, it has been extremely reliable and safe. I have another Mercedes as well, that has been just as fabulous as the E Class.

These E Classes are truly amazing cars. They are timeless and beautiful! These last E Classes from 1996-2000 were the last that were well built by Daimler Benz, instead of Daimler Chrysler. These are treasured because of how well they are built. If you have the opportunity to purchase one.. Just make sure an independent Mercedes Benz specialist has it looked over, to make sure that you're getting a good car. Better to spend the 100 bucks to have the car looked over, rather than 10,000 later.

Yes, little things go wrong... But what car doesn't have its faults. No car is perfect. These are high performance cars, that require more attention than a simple point A to point B kind of a car. If you're looking for a car to just buy and not worry about it... Then you need to buy a Honda or a Toyota. German cars are extremely advanced and well built, that yes, require a little more money to run. But the quality that comes with a Mercedes Benz or a BMW is exponentially greater than that of a Nissan or a Toyota. They are timeless pieces of history. Many don't know that Mercedes Benz was really the very first car. These machines are engineering marvels, and as long as are maintained, will run FOREVER! My very first Mercedes has 1,000,000 miles on it, and still is running, same motor and all. Shows that as long as they're cared for, you can make them last. I recommend them to anyone who is willing to try.

My Dad always said "you can't be a true petrol head unless you have owned an Alfa Romeo..." well I say the same, but put in Mercedes Benz instead of Alfa Romeo!

Happy miles!

Faults:

* After a snowstorm, getting stuck in the snow, the ASR/BAS warning lights came on for no reason.

* A few months after buying my car, the "Lamp Defective" warning came on.

* The A/C sometimes does not blow cold, but that's not much of a problem for me as I don't even use the A/C a lot (maybe 10% of the time).

General Comments:

Very fast car, 0-60mph in 6.2 seconds. I've done at least 100mph numerous times, and it felt that I was going far slower than that. Nice V-8 engine.

And it handles great as well, and it's a solid car. Avoid the ones made after the merger, as their quality nosedived--the newer Mercedes are money pits.

Great fuel economy on the highway (I drive my car mostly on the highway), I typically get 26-28mpg over the past few months (no A/C of course). When I moved back from Washington DC, I managed to get 24mpg, and this is with fairly high speeds (up to 80mph), stop-and-go traffic, and with my car crammed to the hilt with stuff. However, it guzzles expensive premium fuel in town. But it has better gas mileage than my previous car, which only had a V-6.

I still haven't changed the oil, which is great as I drove the car for 15000 miles so far. I still have another 2000 miles remaining before an oil change! However, it uses 8.5 qts of expensive synthetic oil.

The sticker price when new is about $55K, I got mine for $10K. Great second-hand bargain!