Ever since I purchased my '96 E300D about 5 years ago it has always been a step or two behind my '97 E300D and I just figured the newer transmission in the '97 was the difference. Over the past few years the '96 has had a series of electrical issues first with the instrument cluster, then the Bose Amp staying on, the take key message and beeping problem, and finally a blower motor that was shorting out and drawing down the battery. Recently the SRS light came on after the battery died (I left the lights on) but I figured it was related to the low voltage from the dead battery. Over the last couple of years I have had the instrument cluster rebuilt, the ignition switch replaced with a green housing one from a '96 E320 out of a junk yard, renewed all the vacuum control lines, replaced the blower motor, and finally just the other day installed a fresh new Interstate battery ..... so "everything" was finally fixed from my perspective except that pesky SRS light that has to be reset by a specialized MBZ scanner. The car was running good but it still was noticeably slower than the '97. So I took my car in and asked for the codes to be pulled and the warning light reset. The mechanic actually pulled all the codes from all the systems on the car and gave me a print out ..... there were more than 50 failure codes in 15 separate systems .... only the "IC" system, what ever that is, didn't have a failure code. Many of the systems had logged voltage and communication issues and some systems had switch and sensor failures listed. So I drove the car home and .... Oh my the car was totally different just leaping off the line and racing down the street. It was much more responsive than ever and definitely quicker than the '97. I drove it again today for about 50 miles and it wasn't a fluke the car feels like it has been given a new lease on life! So for us DIY mechanics .... just because we don't have any OBD code issues there could be a number of other MBZ code issues effecting performance especially if we have electrical issues .... so it might be worth it to run the car in to a mechanic and have the MBZ codes pulled and cleared. It was the best $50 performance upgrade I've ever done!