I am te original owner of a 97 E320 with 48,000 miles on the odometer. I've always gotten my car serviced at a reputable local Independent Mercedes garage for all my maintenance needs. To my surprise, the transmission fluid, brake fluid, and the power steering fluids were never changed on the car. The mechanic simply topped off all necessary fluid during those service intervals.

Does anyone know the proper time to change the transmission fluid, brake fluid, and power steering fluid on a 97 E320? My warrantee is expiring in 2 months. http://www.autowarrantee.com sells a bumper to bumper packagefor $1700 which would cover the car for another 5 years and up to 100,000 miles.
The car runs smoothly and is servied using Mobil 1 synthetic oil for all lubrication services. The car has never broken down on me in the past 3 1/2 years.
Will I be expecting any expensive repair in the next few years?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Kenneth Wang
97 E320
95 BMW M3

The transmission fluid is claimed to be a lifetime fill, however, almost everyone here will disagree with that. It is advised to change the transmission fluid before 60k miles. The fluid is a special synthetic available from MB and is about $15 a quart, the transmission should only be filled with this fluid. This was the first year of the electronic transmission and the first year Mercedes used this specially formulated synthetic ATF in the tranny.
You can you the search function on this message board and you will find many discussions about changing the transmission fluid.
Mercedes advises changing the brake fluid every two years.
You can also search for "extended warranty" and find discussions on that. I think the general consensus is that they are typically a good idea.