Thinking about buying an E class late 90s early 2000s

[TheBigHunt]

Hi, this is my first attempt in the Mercedes world and I would need some help in my searching for a Break E Class in it's W124 w210 w211 versions (even not very familiar with these numbers)..
Roughly here is my use case and requirements.
I'm a big fan of card, especially NA and young timer era cars.
I own a sport car as a 'quite daily' driver but it's a two seats model and I need to get a more suitable car for hauling, carrying, going with family and so on.
I want something solid, reliable and not too complex to fix myself in case of. I also want car made at a huge number to be able to find spare parts if needed.
I don't know if I want a diesel or a gasoline, I want the most reliable and economic engine.
Power is not very important, options, well AC for sure, manual or automatic gearbox is not that important for me as soon as it's reliable.
If the 4 matic is reliable, I would like it.
Lastly, my budget would be 4-5ke (I'm in France) and I can spend 1k in fixing issues after buying it. I know that I could only get some 200kkm+ cars but is it a problem for a Merc?

So roughly that's the first draft of my need.

Could you help me to tell me first what are the no go engines and models? And then which one would suit my need the best?

Thanks a lot for your help.

[trevalvole]

As a not-very-good start:

W124 ran from the mid-80s to the mid-90s and has a good reputation, but you may struggle to get one for 5000 Euros. If they've been used anywhere in France that gets cold and wet, then watch out for rust.

W210 ran in the timescales you mention, but my impression is that it had a real problem with rust (may differ between pre and post facelift) and the general opinion is that it wasn't made as well as the W124.

W211 was from around 2002 on. I'd be careful of early cars, as Merc didn't sort their rust-proofing until late '03/'04 (depending on the model - a Google will find more information on this). The pre-facelift cars have SBC braking that can cost a bit to replace. Given that you mention economy, I suspect the early diesels wouldn't have a DPF, whereas the later ones probably will. The 1.8 petrol had issues with VVT timing sprockets and the early 3.0 (280) and 3.5 (350) M272 V6 petrols had £XXXX problems with their balancer shaft sprockets.

I'm not sure any of them would be as trouble-free as you might hope, so may be something simpler like a Peugeot 406 diesel might be a better bet, especially in France. Or may be a pre-DPF Volvo S60/V70 2.4 diesel?