Faults:

Elegance version has a wood piece on top of the compartment opener that broke off.

General Comments:

The car has been serviced as it should and has given me hours and hours of pure driving and comfort pleasure. Plenty of room for my family, 2 kids and a dog. I used to own the 02 Saab 9-5 which was an excellent car, but the E-class beat it in most aspects, reliability, comfort -9-5 seats are better however- performance, and not least space, a huge boot! The 4 cyl diesel proves to be very smooth. I find the seats somewhat too hard, but I've yet to get a back problem due to them. Noise is a little lower in the cabin than the 9-5. I tried the 05 BMW 5-series to compare it and prefer the E easily due to comfort and reliability. Sometimes you feel that everything is just right with a car. Space, comfort, performance and not least safety! 5 star on NCAP of course. The E-class S211 is a car that has it all. I love it!

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong with this car so far, only some minor things.

Had to change my glow plugs at 350000km, and a bushing in the steering rack.

General Comments:

This is probably one of the most reliable cars you can buy; build quality is excellent. This car is 20 years old and is very comfortable.

The handling is not really the strong side of this car, but with the Sportline pack the handling is a bit better.

The 2.5 liter normally aspirated diesel is very slow, maybe a bit dangerous when overtaking other cars. It requires thorough and full planning.

The interior is top notch, well almost. The seats are very soft and remind me of a sofa; they wear out very fast too (textile).

Maintenance on these cars is easy, I run Castrol magnatec 5-40W and I change oil and filter every 8000km. This is the most important about these old Benz engines; quality oil and it will run forever.

Too bad Benz build quality is fading...