How good of a car do you need to have? How much do you want to spend? I've had doubts about keeping my W123, but then I looked at the used car market to see what was available. To me, the next best thing over a manual transmission W123 turbo-diesel is a Porsche 911. BMW 2002 and 3-series manuals were also considered, but availability was not present at the time, at least at the prices comparable to keeping the old diesel on the road.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.