I now own both a W123 and W124 300TD. I am still getting familar with the '87 TD, but so far, Damn!. When that car's turbo kicks in, you can feel yourself being pushed into the seat a bit. The car drives more like a gasser than a diesel. The steering is so much tighter as is the whole body. Despite the fact that the 124 is 50 lbs. lighter than the 123, it feels much heavier. The engine compartment definetly has more electronics to it. The one thing, at this point, that I have found to be a poor design from a maintenance standpoint, is the main fuel filter. There is no room to remove the main fuel filter. I have been told that you have to remove the filter and the mount together, then spin off the filter. With 3 fuel lines going to the filter housing, even that seems cumbersome. I like the set up on the 617 engine better. The oil filter on the 603 engine is even closer to the firewall than on the 617 eng. What I can't figure out is what is the center bolt is for, in the filter cover. All it does is screw into the center stem. Changing glowplugs looks to be a real pain since they are located under the plenum (sp). MB placed aerodynamic plastic shields under the engine and tranny. So any oil changes will requiring removing these.

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1999 MB SL500 (110,000 mi)
2004 Volvo V70 2.5T (220,000 mi)
2014 Tesla Model S 85 (136,000 mi)
MBCA member