general problems of the 2003 Mercedes Benz E500

Strong smell of gasoline in cabin of vehicle and outside on drivers side after filling up the night prior. The car was not "topped off". Online search for cause of this problem found this is common among w211 mercedes vehicles. This car is new to me, this is the first time I fueled the car.

We purchased this vehicle in may of 2012. We had to have the canister replaced in the vehicle ($1000), and after that repair, we were told that the fuel vapor valve needed to be replaced. We brought it into mercedes when they replaced the sbc brake system due to a recall and were told that the fuel vapor valve wasn't affecting anything, so we didn't need to repair it. We brought the vehicle for a smog check so we could renew our registration in July of 2013 and it failed due to the check engine light being on. The engine light is on due to the fuel vapor valve being open. We cannot get the engine light to go off, so we cannot pass a smog check. We also cannot fill it up all the way because strong fumes fill up the garage and gas leaks out. We were looking up an issue with the battery on google on 11/10/2013 and come across a class action lawsuit with Mercedes Benz about this issue. We were never informed about the problem that they were having with this car. We would like for them to repair our vehicle so we will feel safe driving it.