"black death" is a way, way overblown term for the problem associated with the copper seal failures. The residue isn't hard to remove and the copper seals are like $8 for the entire set. Even the most extreme cases of this problem are at most a 4 hour repair. If caught earlier its more like an hour repair. There are updated clamp bolts and seals from MB and I'm not even sure this is an endemic problem if the updates parts are fitted when a repair is done.

The term 'death' to describe this problem is overblown by 3 orders of magnitude IMHO.

I bought an 06 CDI from Tyler with 162K on the clock when I got it. It's still in the family now with 300K miles, can't really speak to what was done before I got it but the total repairs I've done on the car over 140K miles is glow plugs and a thermostat. The car doesn't burn any oil, starts instantly at any temperature, doesn't leak a drop of oil and returns low 40's MGP on the highway. It will easily spin tires (or should I say activate the traction control) in dry weather and as an inline 6 cylinder configuration its very smooth and it even sounds nice at higher revs.

I've owned Mercedes diesels for over 3 decades and the OM648 is, by far, the
best iteration of the MB diesel.

Also own a couple of OM651's and they both have way over 30K miles, both have run flawlessly with the exception of a bad intercooler hose on the GLK250.

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98 Dodge-Cummins pickup (137K)
13 GLK250 (157k)
06 E320CDI (341K)
16 C300 (89K)
82 300GD Gelaendewagen (54K)