I love the glowplugs.
Compared to my other MB diesels, a cave man could change out the ones in the CDI.
Far cry from the 95 E300D I had previously.
I remember moving from the W115 to the W123. The W123 240D was nicer in some ways than the old 220Diesels, but it took a turbo W123 300D to really make me jump from the W115.
I also remember getting our 87 W124 300TD in 1993. I was looking for very clean, low mileage W123 turbo wagon when I stumbled onto our W124 300TD.
What a difference! One test drive was enough to convince me to plump down the additional cash to get the OM603 motor. While I still drove W123 diesels as a daily driver, that W124 wagon was a favorite for many years. Still is my wife's favorite car of all time, though she's been driving a 95 E320 wagon for ten years now. I then moved into several W124 diesels, sampled all the versions and currently drive a 91 2.5 turbo. Based upon the experiences with the W210 chassis that several members of the family had, I eschewed the W210, hewing with the W124. Just didn't see the niceties of the W210 equaling the problems those cars developed.
Then a couple of my cousins got CDIs. Wow! What a difference between those cars and my W124s. Tyler advertised one on the list, and I thought about it for all of ten minutes, then said I'd like to have it.
All I can say is that the CDI is the most remarkable car I've ever owned. And that's saying something, I've owned a lot of cool cars. From a standpoint of daily use, it's at the top. Until you actually own one of these cars for a while, it's impossible to understand just how impressive they are. Nostalgia keeps many people moored to their older diesels, and the simplicity is taken as an unassailable virtue, but if you are armed with the SDS system, the CDI is one heck of lot easier to maintain.
No foolin'.
I own and love simple cars.
I've got a 55 Ford Sunliner and my wife has a 68 MGB, for example.
But technology can be a wonderful thing.....
Jim