I had my Crossfire for about 2 years when we got my wife an 04 C240 4Matic. I guess it would be considered a base Mercedes but it is all wheel drive. The car is beautiful, probably one of the prettiest body styles Mercedes has done. We got it with 39,000 miles on it, 1 owner. It was a certified vehicle so the first year was on Mercedes. Right away we had a problem with the dreaded Steering Angle Sensor, same one that kicks a code and the BAS/ESP light in our cars. That took two visits to repair. About a year into the car I noticed a "creaking" in the front end. By this time the certification had lapsed and I had purchased a 2 year, bumper to bumper warranty for 1900$. That repair was 1200$ replacing some front end components. So we are now fine, fast forward to this summer, 57k on the odometer and we are heading to the beach. Two blocks from home the A/C Blower seizes and instead of blowing the fuse the wiring, fuse box, dash catch on fire. Another 2000$ repair, my warranty has now paid for itself and then some. The car is fine again, the shop did an excellent job. My point in all of this is a Mercedes is like every other car, some have problems but on a Mercedes you can expect to pay top dollar to have them fixed, and yes the oil changes are expensive. I wouldn't buy a used one without an extended warranty. I have them on both the Crossfire and the C240.