I'm buying a second-hand estate and have so far narrowed the field to an E-Class or 5 Series. I can only stretch to a 2004 vehicle and it will probably have 100,000+ on the clock.

It will be used for longer journeys, mostly, and probably no more than 6k miles a year. I am looking for fast, comfortable cruising. Reliability is a high priority as I'll be stuffed if I have to start spending 1000s on repairs.

I'd like the Mercedes, partly because of your high opinion of it, but I'm alarmed by all the reports of expensive things going wrong on pre-2006 cars.

So, which of these two would you recommend?

Or should I be looking at something like a newer Mondeo estate instead?

Thanks!