Took my first drive

[Tavenner13]

I drove my first MB diesel this past Tuesday

It was an '84 blue-on-blue 300D automatic. In all actuality, I was expecting to be turned off by the "lack of power", but I was truly surprised. It almost seems as if these cars were tailor-made to fit my driving style (coasting whenever possible, planning ahead, timing stoplights, using momentum, etc.)

I could accelerate just as fast in the 300D as I normally do DD'ing my '04 Silverado, which was a big plus. The ride quality was much better than I'd expected, too. I was thinking I'd hear lots of road noise, engine noise, creaking, etc, but I didn't, even with the car having 595,000 miles on the odo

My project is a '79 240D 4-speed, and I'm thinking I'll love having the manual shift. I haven't driven an N/A car, and I'm curious as to how much the performance suffers without the extra cylinder/turbo. Hopefully I won't be dissappointed after having already driven an OM617 W123. But, the car will only be used to commute 0.9 miles to work and 3.7 miles to school, so whether I'm driving a Ferrari or the 240, it'll be at 45 MPH the whole way.

Any thoughts?