Hello and Questions about the 300D

Hi, brand spanking new to this forum. My name is Steve and I don't currently own a MB, but the thought of getting one has become somewhat of an obsession as of late.

I've fallen in love with the 300D. Pretty much a psychological 180 from where I was with that car a while back... thought it looked boring, diesel performance is poopy, and they sound funny and smell bad.

But now I love them. They are so hot I can't even stand it. Absolutely classy automobile. Owning one as a second car makes so much sense in my mind its ridiculous... but I have to make sure some of the notions I have of these awesome cars aren't false.

I'm not new to message boards, so I expect I'll be getting some "SEARCH DAMMIT!" responses, but in my defense, I also wanted to use this thread as a way of introducing myself.

QUESTIONS:

Which model years are the best? The older styles look AWESOME (almost RR front end), but I imagine this style also comes with a bit of a classical price... at any rate, I also dig the circular headlight models of the 80's.

Are these things really as bulletproof as they are made out to be? I'm guessing yes, since I see an amazing number of them on the streets still. I probably see 4 or 5 DIFFERENT 300D's /TD's on a daily basis.

Did they make any in black? I imagine if they did... its a rare color and therefor more expensive, but the thought of having a black benz to match my E36 is also extremely sexy. The standard beige is classy and beautiful as well.

Well, thats it for now... thanks for reading and I hope I'll get a chance to meet a lot of you through this forum.

Steve