Hi and welcome. My 10p worth is this: at £5K budget it's more to do with your preferences, and the history of the specific car you're looking at, rather than one marque being more reliable than another. So I would judge each car on its condition.

The V50 has the advantage of sharing many engine parts with Ford (the 2.0D engine is the Ford TDCI lump) and I believe - although I am not certain - the gearbox is Ford too. So any replacement bits may be cheaper than the equivalents in the Merc.

The C-class estate is a good bit bigger, and you've already owned one, so you have some experience there.

Devil you know and all that has a lot going for it, so long as you can keep rust at bay Benz's will run for decades.

The 4cyl Diesel is a superb engine, i know a chap who operates private hire E Classes with that engine who usually sells them on at 400k plus miles during which time they've well serviced (by my indy) but give little trouble at all.

A good indy is worth their weight in gold, might be worth having a chat with them about the model you are considering buying, any known weaknesses, ie auto boxed radiators if still an issue on 07 made cars.

Could you stretch to the 08 on C Class, or will it have covered excessive mileage to get within budget.

Edited by gordonbennet on 04/09/2015 at 09:50

I can't comment on the V50, but can comment as a current owner of a 56 plate C220 Estate.

As GB has already said, the diesels are bullet proof and give few issues as long as regular servicing is carried out. I personaly don't go with the MB service plan of oil changes every 17K - I change mine every 5-6K, but that is for my piece of mind. The autoboxes on these cars are also very good and give little trouble again, as long as service guidelines are followed (ATF changed every 40K). When the OP says his car has a failed rad, is this the issue with the rad leaking coolant in to the gearbox? If so, this issue was fixed with the switch from Valeo to Hell/Behr rads and was sorted, AFAIK, by 2004.

MB did have rust issues but these were vastly improved on the C Class from around 2005 onwards, however, you still have to be aware for signs of rust in the normal places (front wheel arches and rear wheel arches).

I've owned my C Class since Feb2013, when I bought it with 78K. It's now up to 124K and in that time, other than normal consumables such as tyres and pads/discs, I've had to replace the front suspension droplinks and anti-roll-bar (done at 115K) and the air-con condensor (top edge split with age/exposure) and the serpentine belt which drives the PAS pump, air-con etc. All parts I've done myself and these cars are actually surprisingly easy to work on if you like DIY repairs (plenty of room in the engine bay). What I have found is that many parts can be sourced from Eurocarparts and are of equal standard (when you buy known brands such as Hella/ATE/Conti-tech/Bosch etc) compared to MB OE parts. Other tip is you can maintain MB FSH by getting the £150 MB 7+ Value service done (but obviously you'll have to get the other bits that aren't covered done by an independant or yourself). Or if you have a good MB indy garage local, then just use them (I don't have one nearby).