having a 124.133 also, i say it is sheer joy to drive
. be able to replace oyur own glow plugs to save oyurself lots of $ and be able to do other services too, like brakes and fluid changes (if oyur into it). there are alot of services with this car that are very doable for the person with even moderate mechanical ability. after having worked on my car many times i am struck at how the car is acutally engineered to be worked on.
tip: if oyur power seems to be lacking, start with checking the overboost solenoid, mine had a cakey black powder in it and it turns out (after replacing the solenoid, $38) it is an entirely differnt car now (i went from 7psi boost to 11). oodles of power now, the car has some suprising zip!
though this diesel has some electronic influence over systems management, it is not omnipresent like the newer ones and as such is very tweekable.