I agree with what you guys are saying. My glow plugs are original and will shortly need to be replaced. Part of my problem starting is the altitude that the car is at (7000 ft). The lack of oxygen doesn't help - when we are at sea level it is fine.

My concern was that if I had to replace the glow plugs is it worth modifying the system for a faster glow.

This car seems horrendously slow - but that is compared to my '97 E300D and my wife's VW TDI. I now it's different technology but when I had a 123 300D-T that car did glow faster.