I am a new owner of a 1982 300d (automatic tranny) with 129K miles on it and have been reading the posts here. It runs great and starts without plugging it in down to 0 Degrees F. It is a little slower than I thought it would be in the acceleration but I have read some very good posts about tweaking it out - mostly cleanse and adjust. I also have a 99 Jetta turbo diesel that has really good pickup and go that I am using for reference. I have the usual problems of sticky sun roof, engine dieseling after shut off (continuing to run), weird climate heat and cruise control. I will be playing around with the vacuum system and tweaking it to perfection in short order as per the forums suggestions. One thing that I am interested in finding out about is whether or not an automatic transmission from a gas Mercedes will mate up to the diesel engine. There is a wrecked 77 gas Mercedes in the local junkyard (front end hit) that has some good items in it and I was thinking of picking up the tranny in case mine goes out. Any of you serious gearheads have the answer for me?