£5k W211 E class - help with reliable engine pls

[Matt UK]

Morning all,

I'm doing 30k business miles per year and I think I fancy a W211 E class. I see no point in spending more than £5k, but could put more in if there's a good reason.

Auto I like and diesel makes sense. Spec and looks I am not really fussed with, preference is small wheeled hush and comfort.

This car will spend pretty much all of it's working life with me at 70mph in a straight line.
Performance, handling, feel will be taken care of via other cars - I want isolation, comfort, reliability, decent running costs.

Between the choices available, servicing, insurance and MPG to a degree are not going to make or break it. IME of motorway driving, the little 4-pots never deliver the numbers, the bigger engines get close = so the real world gap is pretty marginal.

Older car with low miles / newer with high miles I'm open to and have run more than one car with 150k+ on the clocks.
What I really don't want is to inadvertently blunder in and buy an engine / gearbox combo with well know issues, which I find lots of info about sitting on the hard shoulder waiting for the recovery truck.

I see the options as 220, 270, 280, 320 and hopefully PH will also be able to advise on facelifts / gearbox changes to go for / avoid during the W211 also.

[V12 AMG]

The pre-facelift 220, 270 or 320 (inline 6) mated to the 5 speed auto are all pretty robust and their issues are well documented and easily remedied.
The 270 is the sweet spot for motorway cruising. All the economy of the 220 but with that bit more power and a better final drive ratio for British motorway speeds.
The 320 I6 can achieve respectable figures but not as good as the other 2 and they are marginally more expensive when it comes to repair or service time.

I would avoid a 280 or 320 V6 diesels as they have many potentially serious issues and are significantly worse on fuel. They also consume air filters like no other vehicle.
By dodging those motors, you will also avoid the 7G box which does have some issues and is costly to have maintained compared to the earlier 5G.

Early cars have SBC and this should be factored in to the purchase price. If the car hasn't had the SBC unit replaced recently, make sure you budget at least £600 for a replacement at some point during your ownership.

[ZX10R NIN]

I agree with V12 the 270 is the sweet spot & an economy map will make it even sweeter I used to see 51mpg out of my CLK 270cdi on a run one thing I'd do is get the gearbox oil & filter replaced it's not an expensive job but a worthwhile one.

Here are a few:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

[bga]

V12 AMG said:

Early cars have SBC and this should be factored in to the purchase price. If the car hasn't had the SBC unit replaced recently, make sure you budget at least £600 for a replacement at some point during your ownership.

The SBC pump was changed as a condition of sale with my W211, the part was approx £750 ex-VAT from Mercedes

[Pentoman]

I'm a Merc fan (previous owner of 190E and 190E 2.5-16) but I'm not sure I would do 30k/year in a 5k diesel W211. I hang out with a lot of mechanics and... yeah.

What I did was to buy this: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Where you get e-class/s-class levels of refinement, a notoriously reliable diesel (whoever heard of such a thing), and just a much newer car.

Sorry I know you didn't ask for other suggestions but the W211... Not exactly a Mercedes strong point this one.

[V12 AMG]

bga said:

The SBC pump was changed as a condition of sale with my W211, the part was approx £750 ex-VAT from Mercedes

They are available from Bosch directly for around £400+vat if you have a trade account.

[Matt UK]

Thanks chaps, just the sort of pointers I was looking for.

Pentoman said:

I'm a Merc fan (previous owner of 190E and 190E 2.5-16) but I'm not sure I would do 30k/year in a 5k diesel W211. I hang out with a lot of mechanics and... yeah.

Pento, good to have another opinion. I just figured that approx 1,000,000 premium taxi companies couldn't be wrong! The E220 that took me to Heathrow last week had 280k miles on the clock and the owner/driver seemed happy with it.