I crashed my c220 and Want to buy a new car, I was looking at the E300, 1996,1997, Why do they want so much for that car, Also How reliable is it, How reliable is the e320/e430.....I wanna stick with a benz...also what other cars would you guys recomend for the 10,000 price range

 

You don't give your location, so we don't know where you are.

The "E" class is a whole lot different and much more car than a "C" class.

That's one of the reasons that they cost more used and are worth it IMHO.
If you are here in America, there weren't that many imported, and although they are not considered rare, they aren't all that plentiful.
Resale value is higher for the E-300s than any other W-210 except the E-55s.

If you can afford MY years '98 and '99, those are the preferred models, having much more horsepower and torque than the '96 and '97s. There were only 3113 '98s and 3479 '99s imported for all of the N A continent.
The '96s still had the four speed automatics; 1997 was the first year for the newer five speeds transmissions.
It is possible to find clean well cared for '98s or '99s with high mileage priced in the $12K range.
Low mileage examples are much higher priced, with some people asking over $30K.
Whether they are able to sell their cars for that much, I seriously doubt, but that is what they are asking.

One of the biggest problems in the need to replace the glow plugs often. However, one doesn't need to do that if you garage the car or live in a mild climate. I've have had one bad plug now for 15K miles, and it still starts right up although it will miss on that cylinder for a couple of seconds. No big deal. Mine has only 116K miles, but seems to run better and better with each additional mile.

I must warn you, once you have a diesel you'll be spoiled and you'll not want any gasser again. Torque is higher than the E-320, and fuel economy is almost double that of the E-420/E430s. Others may argue with that statement, but they've not owned twelve MBZ diesels going back to my first, a 1961 190 Db.
As you may gather, I'm sold on diesels, and only wish I could get a new E-320 CDI, but alas, they not available new here in California.

HTHs, and good luck.

 

E300