...the greatest asset of the MB passenger car diesel...which hit its epitome in the 1980s...was its SIMPLICITY and degree of overbuilding and robustness no other manufacturer saw fit to compete with.

IMHO, any "progress" that adds electronic stuff to the very basic diesel is in fact retrograde.

Believe SDs sold incredibly well in California before the state boys got 'em, denying MB a major market, and hastening the departure of MB diesels from these shores.