Originally Posted by Wolf359
Well I have two E-350's, a 2008 and a 2011. The reason they're so cheap is that there's always a newer model available and like the sentiment above, everyone is afraid of the high repair costs. They're probably higher on older models. The W212 platform you're looking at the 2013-2014 are much more reliable than the previous generation.
Anyway there's lots of resources out there. Use this vin decoder to find out what options the car has.
https://www.datamb.com/
The EPC/WIS you can get on eBay for around $10-$15, that's the parts lookup and the service manuals that the dealers use.
There's also several online places that discount MB parts about 25-30% off list price.
I wouldn't worry too much about rust, lots of the panels used are aluminum like the hood and trunk, no rust on my 2008 although there's some minor surface rust underneath, the body panels hide a lot of it.
You can get code scanners like the Autel Diaglink which does MB specific codes, around $90-$100 on Amazon, otherwise a knock off Star/Xentry C3/C4 scanner is in the $600-$800 range online, the real thing is thousands.
Most expensive part of owning one so far is the tires/rims, those low profile 18 and 17 inch rims tend to get bent/cracked from all the potholes in this area and I'm not sure why I've also picked up a bunch of nails in the last few years. Tires tend to be about $200 a pop.
The E-350's in the area are probably 4matics which are fine, slight hit on the gas mileage, but you get the same 4 tires on all the wheels. The RWD version gets staggered so the rears wear out in 1/2 the time as they can't be rotated. I would look at the 2014, it had a lot of new stuff like LED headlights and collision prevention and it was also the face lift. The early W212 had faded wood trim, but mostly was gone by 2013/2014 although some still claim that it's still there on their 2014's. Open the door to see if the wood hidden by the door is the same color to make sure the wood isn't faded. The pano roof can make noise over certain bumps, the bolts need to be tightened.
I'd use the vin decoder to find things like the bixenons/lighting package, pano roof, parktronic, real leather instead of mb-tex, keyless go, dynamic seats, driver assistance package, power trunk closer, etc., but that's just me. Hard to find them loaded, most just had the P1 package and one or two options on the list. Once you start loading them up the price can climb up there. A real unicorn these days would be a loaded 2014 E550, last year they made them.
They're fun to drive, I hope you get one. My only regret was not getting one sooner. I can honestly say that it's one of those things that brings a smile to my face once in a while which never really happened in previous soul slaughtering appliances I was driving before. Mine might have too many toys though, I have to stop myself from playing with various options as it can be too distracting.
Once again, you need to understand that the only true BITOG experts on European cars are the folks who haven't even
sat in a Audi/BMW/Mercedes?Porsche- never mind owned or driven one...