Thanks Gilly
I can't believe that M-B has made the task of checking the oil so complicated. None of the other manufacturers seem to have a problem with this. The car is new, I will keep a log of the oil level in my semi-heated garage after the car has been setting overnight and has reached a stable cold temperature. I will then plot oil level vs. garage temperature. When I change the oil, I usually drive into the garage after a trip and let it drain overnight. I will use the cold level as my benchmark also monitoring the dash readout and keeping on the low side during the initial fill. I can't see how I can go wrong doing this.