ok here's my two cents:
It is hard to compare a SUV vs sedan.

I drive a E53 2002 X5 4.4 V8 and a W210 2002 E320 V6. hard to compare when it comes to engine. E53 is great lots of power but a little loud. the bells and whistles are great but the acoustics is nothing compare to Benz. When I want to long striaght highway driving, I prefer the benz much comfortable ride than the E53 for obvious reason. For short trips and windy roads E53 is my choice. My E320 is the special edition so it has everything except the nav.

Your w210 does not have as mutch issues as w211 that everyone complains about.
I agree with you, Benz is a nice confort ride, BMW is fun ride :)

I just traded my 02' E320 4Matic Wagon in on a 04' X5 3.0. The Benz was a good car for my family and we never had troubles with it. I have heard many horror stories on electric issues and bad shock towers. When I brought my Benz in for my pre-purchase inspection I asked the service advisor which body style he would buy and he said the w211 had lots of issues and to go with the w210 body as it was much more reliable. I really love my X5 and will never buy amother Mercedes again because I think we were only lucky with ours.

It is my understanding that most of the electrical issues have been improved on the current models; do you really think its still a problem?

If you are going to buy a benz, your best bet is a s series or ml series. I have and still have both in my garage. They run very well and haven't given an problems.

2002 ML55
1999 S600

older ML's body style w163 also are very prone to problems as well. Not to sure on the newer w164 body style.

well im not sure in general about the ML, but the ML that i own has no problems.

You have a ML and a X5 ?

Yes, and a 1999 s600

w211 has issues, big issues. Facelift (new) version should have most of old problems fixed, however there might be new ones.
If you want e-class i would not recomend w211 pre facelift, it is electronic desaster on wheels:) Same thing basicly applys to C-Class pre facelift, but it has less issues then E
As someone said lease a facelift version, or pay some more for it.