Mercedes-Benz M-Class M-Class, W164
A big, quiet SUV that covers distance beautifully and feels solid in a way the earlier one never did. It's cheap to buy now and it isn't cheap to keep.
Overview
The W164 is the SUV Mercedes-Benz M-Class, built 2005–2011 and facelifted in 2008. 2 standard engines are documented here, each with its own issue list, inspection sequence and price band. Asking prices across the standard range run €5,000–€15,250, and 2 of the 2 carry a risk level of 4 or 5; the facelift cars sit at a premium over otherwise identical pre-facelift ones. The ML 350 M272 is both the cheapest way in, from €6,600, and the lowest-risk engine of the range, which makes it the obvious starting point. Prices are illustrative placeholders rather than a sourced market sample. See the methodology.
Mercedes-Benz M-Class SUV (W164) · photo Mercedes-Benz W164 black by Thomas doerfer · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
| Body style | SUV | Production | 2005–2011 |
| Platform siblings | sold in this body only | Facelift (LCI) | 2008 |
Engine matrix: pre-facelift, 2005–2007
The 2 variants sold before the 2008 facelift. Power and years come from the variant records; prices are illustrative, not sourced.
| Badge↕ | Engine | Fuel | Years↕ | Power↑ | Torque↕ | Risk↕ | Issues | Price band↕ | Good buy↕ | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ML 320 CDI | OM642 | diesel | 2005–2007 | 224 PS | 510 Nm | R4 | 7 | €5,500–€14,000 | €7,250 | Buy w/ conditions |
| ML 350 | M272 | petrol | 2005–2007 | 272 PS | 350 Nm | R4 | 4 | €5,000–€13,000 | €6,600 | Buy w/ conditions |
Engine matrix: facelift / LCI, 2008–2011
The 2 variants sold from the facelift on, priced at a 9% premium over the pre-facelift car.
2 variants from the facelift on, carrying a real market premium of roughly 9% over an otherwise identical pre-facelift car. Variants appearing in both tables were sold either side of the changeover, the build month decides which one you're looking at, not the model year.
| Badge↕ | Engine | Fuel | Years↕ | Power↑ | Torque↕ | Risk↕ | Issues | Price band↕ | Good buy↕ | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ML 320 CDI | OM642 | diesel | 2008–2011 | 224 PS | 510 Nm | R4 | 7 | €6,000–€15,250 | €7,900 | Buy w/ conditions |
| ML 350 | M272 | petrol | 2008–2011 | 272 PS | 350 Nm | R4 | 4 | €5,450–€14,150 | €7,200 | Buy w/ conditions |
Market availability varied by country; check the engine code stamped on the block rather than the badge on the boot. · Compare every engine side by side →
Model-year availability
Which engines were on sale in which year, from the year ranges in the variant records. Availability varied by country.
| Variant | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ML 320 CDI OM642 | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| ML 350 M272 | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
● full year · ◐ arrives or leaves mid-generation. Years from 2008 in the accent colour are facelift (LCI) cars. Verify the engine code, not the model year.
Rating map, price against risk
Good-buy price plotted against risk level for every standard engine, so the value corner is visible at a glance.
Every standard engine in the chassis, plotted at its good-buy price against its risk level. Cheap and low-risk is the top-left; expensive and fragile is the bottom-right. M cars are excluded, they would stretch the price axis and tell you nothing about the rest.
Prices across the range
Where the money sits across the whole chassis. Every figure here is an illustrative placeholder, not a sourced market sample.
Every standard engine on one euro axis: the bar spans the 10th to 90th percentile of asking prices, the tick is the median and the green marker is the good-buy figure. AMG cars are excluded; they sit an order of magnitude above the rest.
Every standard engine · cheapest first · ML 350 M272 highlighted as best value
at or under the good buy · good buy · median · bar spans the 10th–90th percentile
Chassis-wide issues, every engine inherits these
Faults recorded against the bodyshell and running gear rather than one engine, so every variant on this page inherits them.
Written once against the chassis and shown on every variant page below, so nothing here is repeated 2 times: AMG cars included, since the bodyshell and electronics are shared.
Buying summary
Our read on the chassis, built on the records above rather than added to them.
Best value: ML 320 CDI, running the OM642 V6 that also powers the E-Class and doing it well. Ask about the oil cooler seals on any OM642, because the leak is common and the labour is what costs. Check the air suspension at every height if fitted, and the transfer case for whine. So scan the whole car and treat a tired battery as the cause of several faults at once rather than as a separate problem.
Cheapest and dearest in this chassis
The ends of the range by good-buy price. Useful for sanity-checking anything you're quoted.