I'm not much of an attention ***** but i definitely don't mind the compliments, looks, and stares that the car gets, although when girls call it 'cute' it irritates me a bit and that's why those girls end up with the nickname 'tubby'. Regardless, the car does handle great stock. I'm not sure if it's because it's MY car, but I don't feel comfortable driving any other car, doesn't matter if it's the ML320 I drive now, or my cousin's M3 that I had for a week, but for some reason I am extremely attached to the MSP.
My stock block blew, but it was mainly due to my negligence with oil changes. I went all out with a built motor, but that only lasted 4 months, due to a small oil leak that I didn't detect until too late - pistons ended up melting. I'm in the process of getting a 3rd block, same as the first, but I'm also getting the MPI stage1 turbo upgrade. I've had the MPI and extra injectors in my possession but the MPI was never really tuned, or in the car for more than a week. I also added an FMIC. So I've pretty much spent $12,000 on the car, but it was never really fast at any point due to the fact that even if I upped the boost, the car ran filthy rich and I didn't get much of a power increase. I think I've been pretty patient so far with the progress, but my whole point is that this car is fine the way it is if it's left stock and well maintained. Once you up the boost more than stock, you'll start running into problems, but that's how it is with any car really - once you mess with stock settings that were given to you from the factory for a reason, you risk the chance of unreliability and problems. In two weeks hopefully my car will be the beast I've been wanting it to be for a long time.
