Great car, they handle nicely.

The locking problem could be the electric vacuum pump underneath the rear seat. Check to see if it's working.

The rubber exterior mirror boots are cracked on mine as well. As far as I can tell you can't buy those things without buying the whole mirror assembly. $$$ Let me know if you can find them separately.

Yes, I would definitely say that Redline D4 Synthetic is the best ATF for the car. Redline anything is ultra-great stuff. I use Redline Shockproof Heavy in my rear differential as well.

I used Shell Rotella Synthetic 5W-40 for a couple of oil changes, it was fine I suppose. However I just switched back to Mobil-1 Synthetic 10W-30 High Mileage and the car seems to like it better. The Rotella is cheaper but seemed to need changing more often. Other people with cars running the M103 engine swear by the Rotella. It's probably all pretty much the same.

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'02 BMW 325i
'85 300D 450k
'93 190E 2.6 170k(killed by tree)
'08 Ducati Hypermotard 1100S 6k
'06 Ducati S2R800 14k(sold)