no first hand experiance( i wish i did), but i have read by some that aside from the 98 turbo model, this is considered to be one of the nicest diesel's mb ever made. One comes through my work some times, and you can't hardly tell it's a diesel. Can't help you on the power/speed issue, but i'm pretty sure the MPGS are way up there. Other then the typicall isues with any E-class of that year, i'm not sure of any problems with the diesel, or at least i havn't read of any. i'm not even sure there are any problems with the E-class in genera, but again, i'm not sure. YOu may want to try tech help forum, most of the people in here own really old diesels
Ryan