I’ve (we’ve) owned 2, a 51 plate and an 04 plate, 51plate was a 1.4 and the 04 a 1.6, both petrol.
The 51 plate was a lovely car to drive, enjoyed it’s ownership but I(we) did have a myriad of problems with it. Suspension is made out of Brie, balljoints manchego, stater motor cheddar, rear subframe bushes chocolate. In the time I owned it it was fully serviced by Merc (bought new BTW) and in that time all the work was done on warranty even when it came out of warranty in it’s last year with us they paid for the Brie suspension to be replaced. I say suspension this included 4 sets of front springs, 2 rear springs, bushes (all of them replaced at least 4 times that I know of)
But, yeah but it was ace to drive and I could get all my windsurfing gear in it when the Beemer was being used by the wife.
The 1.6 came to us as we px’d the 1.4 in even though we were pissed off with them we got convinced that since 04 all the problems were sorted, ok we bought it. TBF we had no problems with that car at all, but once again FSH by Merc and who knows what was changed during servicing eh..
We then bought a B class which TBH was a way better car in everyway except we bought th 1.8 which was a bit underpowered.
So, I loved them, they caused headaches and lots of time at the dealers but the concept was ace and they drove lovely. I’d say punt on one if it’s had a Merc FSH because you maybe able to go back to them if somethings been chaned and gone wrong again.
HTH