do you go to silver star or MB westminster?
thread creator... are you looking at brand new, newish used, or old used? I have an 86 300SD which is my daily driver, has 200k miles on it, runs like a fucking champ, and all i do is change the glowplugs and oil, and tranny fluid and it goes. I also own a 91 190E 2.6 16 Valve. put maybe 200 miles on it since I bought it, but the thing is amazing, but extremely difficult to work on. my dad owns a 2001 S600, had it since new, and loves it, rarely has problems, over 120k on it. look around where you live, if there are a bunch of independent mechanics, talk to some of htem, and ask their opinions of what you should look into, and whats better on maintenance and such. any benz from the 90s after they stopped the w126 body style is gonna be shit. so either go pre-90s or 2000s.