You are kidding right? I used to have a 1997 E420 that I always had serviced at the dealer. All recommended service. Not once did they ever mention this problem, nor did they list it in the "inspections performed" and I owned the car from the summer of 1996 until August 2008. By the way, the only reason I let it go was because it was a rust bucket, so who knows what disaster was waiting in the wings.

To those like me that subscribe to "Mercedes is one of the safest cars on the planet" ...... would you add... "even if the front suspension collapses on you at 70mph."

Has Mercedes actively notified the public of this issue? How about the hundreds of major independent garages? Have they ever even acknowledged this as a design/manufacturing defect? Did they ever publicly document the need for this inspection and make it available to current owners of the car?

This smacks of the Pinto syndrome. $ vs. Lives. Negligence is proved in the courts and if I were on the jury, I could be easily swayed to the plantiff on this one..and trust me, I'm no bleeding heart liberal.