Mexico will continue to produce cfc12 (freon, r12 etc) until at least 2010. They were given extra time as a third world nation to stop production. Of course many other countries never agreed to stop production PERIOD so it will always be in use. It is nothing more than "feel good" politics that stopped production in the USA.
The good that came out of it was research into alternatives. There are other advantages to using hydrocarbon refrigerates besides cost. The one I have noticed is the load on the A/C system. Compressor is very quiet, pressure both high and low are much less so the strain on everything is less. MPG went up on long highway drives by about 50 miles to the tank. Use to feel the compressor "hit" when it would cycle out on the open road and now I don't. Never had one of my MB's with real r12 so I don't know how it feels. I do know in my 300d with 134 it would suck 2-3 miles in speed when it kicked in. Felt like someone grabbed the rear bumper and pulled.