Presumably still under makers warranty.

Ex renter, then owned for 6 months only, my first thoughts would be wondering how many misfuelled gallons of petrol have gone through the fuel system ,and why isn't this car in the MB used car network.

It would have to be a lot cheaper than from an MB dealer for me to take the gamble

Do you mean it could have been refuelled with petrol instead of diesel? If so, will that cause permanent damage to engine, even if it's been cleaned properly?

Is it possible to tell if a diesel engines had petrol in it?

Gone are the days of hire cars being less than six months old and 10,000 miles, although some of the companies do still stick to this - presumably it's all down to the fleet deals they get and the availability of working capital to take advantage of those deals.

These days, it's not just the bread and butter Focuses, Astras, Mondeos and Insignias... pretty much any car I pick up could be up to 18 months old and have 30-50,000 on the clock, of which I'll usually add a thousand miles in a few days.

I've had a couple of Kugas recently... horrible car in 2WD due to the spike in torque from the 2l diesel engine leaving the front tyres scrubbing all over the road! They both had "service oil" on the dashboard, despite both being under 20k miles... I presume that this is a DPF regeneration issue and that the oil in the sump is now mostly diesel... Doesn't bode well for engine life once a year or two out of warranty.

Mercedes say that if the car has missed it's service, or is well overdue, the warranty is still valid

Get it in writing from MBUK NOT a dealer

It was the new E-Class Estate w212 model that was affected by the injectors issue. This wasn't available until 2010 in the UK. As the OP says the car is nearly 2 years old I would guess it's the previous generation w211 model so should be ok, at least as far as the injectors go.

Apologies for my ignorance, but how do I find out if it is a W211 model or not?

Thanks - a great help!