philnewmerc
Active Member
Hello MB forum. I haven't been on here for a few years now. I've owned a w202 which was lovely but rusted away like a 1970s Alfa and the gearbox went wonky, a w203 which was smooth, but felt a bit cheap inside and, unbelievably, also started to rust badly too. So, I've had two Italian Alfas, a Fiat and a Volvo since then and none of them had a spot of rust. There's a Renault 5 near us parked outside for 30 years and even that hasn't rusted nearly as bad as a 8 year old Mercedes. Anyway, this put me off them at the time but i did very much enjoy driving them. So, I've been perusing Auto trader and w204s seem to look nice and affordable and I want to avoid two things: rust, premature automatic gearbox failure (i don't want a manual tho) and the high uk road tax bracket, ok 3 things! I'm thinking c350 diesel vc c280 petrol. Have you guys any tips on these choices or other options please? Budget is 6k. Cheers ! I