I've never had to mess with the power seats, can't offer any help there. They are simple to remove from the car - four bolts hold them to the floor, with two or three electrical connectors.

A little math. $4800 in a year is $400/month. That's a lot to spend on repairing an older Benz, but look at the alternatives. You could lease a new Infiniti I35 for about that price. I'm not sure that's a step up from a ten year old Benz.

Best advice to hold down your repair costs is to handle the simple things yourself. You can generally perform a repair yourself for 25% of the cost of having it done. (I'm not assigning any economic value to your time in making this comparison.) You are not only paying the mechanic an hourly rate for his time and labor, he is also charging you a substantial markup on the parts he installs over the price at which you can purchase them. With all the advice and experience available here, you should be able to somewhat reduce that $4800 figure, at the expense of a scraped knuckle or two.

- JimY