E350 petrol or diesel?

[Deleted member 11979]

A friend of mine is probably going to buy a 2011 ish E350 convertible.

They are lovely cars, and a diesel has been driven and was extremely impressive. The car is for long term ownership, the current car being a Peugeot 307CC owned since new in 2005 and having given completely trouble free motoring in that time.

There is a question

Is the Mercedes likely to prove costly to maintain given it's complexity. I am dubious after owning 2 Mercedes from the early 2000's and having nothing but expensive trouble. Have they really cracked the quality? Bearing the above in mind, would a petrol be a "safer" bet given the complexity of modern diesels?

Annual mileage is 20k miles, it would be nice to save money on fuel going the diesel route, but not at the expensive of massive repair bills.

I know there is no right answer, but opinions would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Deleted member 11979]

Thanks for the invaluable help

 

[dhard]

E350 CDI the best engine MERCEDES make ... there your answer ..

 

[blue gnome123]

The E350cdi is a very good engine and depending on your mileage (M-way / out of town best) it can be very economical although there will be many people here who will also talk up the virtue of the e350 petrol. Certainly there is less to go wrong with from a normally aspirated engine.

The oldest 212's are now coming up to 4 years old and they seem to be pretty reliable.