Thanks for the info. I am actually in Canada, not Europe. And yes, we use metric here for the most part.

It does shift a bit earlier than the marks on the the speedo (it will shift into 4th at about 135 instead of 145 for example). This is with the pedal all the way to the floor including the kickdown switch. Not that it really matters much, it's fine the way it is, but I thought if it was easy to adjust then I would do that.

By flaring a bit, I meant that sometimes during the shift between 2nd and 3rd, the engine rpm shoots up a bit before it catches. Only sometimes.

I've been driving a diesel for the last 5 years (a Jetta TDI) but switched to the Benz because of the comfort and a deal I couldn't pass up. Of course that car had a 5 speed manual...

Anyway the transmission is fine for the most part, I was just hoping for some opinion on the shift points.. but if it's relatively normal then that is fine.

I'm not sure if it burns oil, but it does definitely leak a bit from what looks like the front and rear crankshaft bearing seals. I'll see if it's any different once I have had synthetic oil in there for a while. I suppose this trouble could have been caused by the car sitting a lot and not being used much for the last 5 years or so. Maybe the seals went a bit funny during all that sitting time.

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1991 MB 300D 2.5 Turbo (207000km) (now gone)
1993 Audi 100 CS Quattro (300000km)
1999 VW Jetta TDI (290000km)
2002 Audi A6 3.0 Quattro (150000km)
2005 MB E320 CDI (34000km)