Driving in France...you have to be reactive, especially these last years, I'm becomming older or the people just more impatient. I had some C200D (Manual) and C250D (automatic) as rental cars for a while, in a very hilly city, and my goodness they were slow. Didn't match at all the driving conditions I was in (City, up and down the hills, lots of traffic lights, lanes merging, etc). Driving was very different as in the US, for sure.
Was sure glad to get my 190E (manual) back after a few days...and that one wasn't particularly fast either.
On the other hand, my Fiat TD100 had just the right torque with the small turbo to blend in the traffic, even if it was much more at ease as a highway cruiser.
I don't know how the timing is handled by the 2,5L diesel Mercedes, but a poorly adjusted/timed pump can lead to a very sluggish feel on startup. Not sure there is an electronic adjustment on these like the Fiat had.