Used Mercedes-Benz C-Class Estate 2000 - 2008 review

A full service history is essential. It will ensure a better price when you resell the car, and you can also be sure that a well maintained C-Class estate will give you little, if any, trouble.

These are generally robust cars. Anyone who says Mercs aren't built like they used to be may be right, but they're still well screwed together using durable materials and proven engineering.

Witness our Reliability Survey findings, where the C-Class nets a place in the top quarter of the table. The JD Power customer satisfaction survey also echoes the general reliability of the C-Class - it's better than the bigger E-Class, for instance.

Even so, problems with the electronics and software are reportedly quite widespread, alternators can fail, some automatic gearboxes are trouble-prone and you should keep an ear out for odd noises from the suspension.

On most cars, these faults will have been (or, if you're buying newer, will be) sorted by Mercedes' three-year unlimited-mileage warranty.