Let me tell you this story. In 1997, a big rainstorm came to Houston, and flooded part of the Southwest side of town. I live on the other side of town, and my school was over there. My mom was driving me to school in the 300SD, we were unaware of the high waters. As we turned down the street to the school, the water was pretty low, then, it started to get bumper level. The Benz died, and I started crying (I was in the 4th grade then), I was scared. I opened the door, and a little trickle of water came in. I shut the door. My mom opened the drivers side, and we waded out and got help from some nice people in the neighborhood. They let us come into their houses soaking wet, and let us use the phone to call for help. That just goes to show you that there are still good people out there. We called a tow truck, and we were going to have it towed to the indy. My brother and sister arrived after the water receded, and my brother took pictures of the car for insurance purposes. He tried to start it (I think he should not have tried that), and water came out of the exhaust pipe. We thought it was totalled. My mom thought she was going to get a new car, she was kind of glad, because the neighbor was selling his 95 LS400 around that time.
But oh was she wrong, (although she got that Lex about two years later). About a week later, the indy called, and said, "Your car's ready." HA!!!
All they did was remove the interior carpet, clean it, and let it dry out, everything else was pretty much fine. I knew from then on out that I wanted to drive that car in high school, or a MB diesel. That is a testament to MB indestructability. We still have that car, still running strong.
-Joe