I know im biased cause i hate the rather V6!! BEcause of years and years with the straight six 24v , BUT
The diesel mig is a hell of a tool really and a chipped one has around 325torques which is what gets you going yes i admit it isnt a racing car but its plenty fast enough to drive clear across Spain in 10hours!!
bit i digress, where the diesel scores for me is the following
MPG always averages high 40,s and often more with a bit of care!
servicing yes i know 3.5k oil changes are a pain for high milers but they only take ten mins to do, 
and you dont have to change the rubberbelt (kevlar reinforced but still break or the tensioner lets go)
air filter and fuel filter once a year and thats it!
no plugs to change,
no camcover leaks
no dis pack letting you down
no cranksensor dying at inopportune moments, ;Dno cam sensor deciding it dont want to work anymore
no oil cooler filling the cooling system with mayonaise
and so on and so on, I know a lot of you love your V6,s but its just so high maintenance for what it is?!!
JM2PW 
Shite viscous fan, and the pointless viscous fan, not forgettign that stupid viscous fan.
That aside, very weak waterpump, awkward glow plugs, problematic stats, cooling system that sludges the rad up, lift pump issues, code 64 FIP issues, rather heavy lump making the car handle very 'pointy'. Oh, and did I mention that rather viscous fan!
All that said, I miss Project TB2/Tractor 
LOLOL never having a oroblem with my viscous on any of the 3 i have had so cant coment,
weak water pumps? change it to a metal one and job done and it takes around 30mins to do, how long on a V6?

Glow plugs? hmm done them on two of the three but not a bad job really and its only once in around 100k,
lift pump is a known issue but its only a modified petrol pump and reasonably easily sorted or rebuilt as a few have done,
yes its heavy lump but you dont really notice it till your pushing it really hard,
in short i reckon 90percent of all probs with the lump come from incorrect servicing in dealers who didnt know what they were supposed to do when the engine was forst introduced, as you have said once sorted they kind of grow on you
