If there was ever one car that had Mercedes beat or matched it was the Volvo Turbo's of the 80's. My 1989 760 wagon did 0-60 in 8 seconds flat. All through the 80's Volvos did 0-60 in 8 seconds or slightly less. They were just as tough as mercedes, just a comfortable, just as safe, the sedan also had multilink rear suspension, they had antilock brakes and automatic climate control with a beautiful interior and big sun roof but they cost less. 0-60 in 8 seconds was fast in the 80's, only the best mercedes with the biggest V8 could beat that with 0-60 in about 7 seconds for an 500SL, maybe a Eurospec 550SLC, mind you they had better top speed, not that anyone would ever use it, from 0-110mph the Volvo was holding on and using less gas. The Mercedes Turbodiesel was where Mercedes beat Volvo. I love that in the W124 sedans the turbo was the top of the line hot rod motor, you could have a 180hp 2.8liter 6 but the turbo 5 was the biggest motor they put in the car. Back in the day the turbo 5 was a seriously high performance motor, driving around town it sounded like a cat purring and it had a lot of torque it was willing to throw down at low speeds and they could get 30mpg. Old volvos are great cars.