My feeling about MB quality is that it started to decline with the introduction of the trap oxidizer in 1985. Then we had things like weak heads and bent rods. Did any MB's prior to the 1985 model year ever have such serious issues?

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL