Looking for advice. Just found out from MB service technician that my transmission is destroyed and a new one plus catalytic converter will run $6750. I had an A service last week, and the car seemed to run beautifully after. Two days later, while stopped at a light I felt a thump somewhere in the rear end. Thinking the guy behind had bumped me I got out and looked but didn't see any scratches. Drove another 1/4 mile, felt it again, then the car sharply decelerated and stopped. Discovered that everything from Park to 1st was gone. Eventually got Drive to work a little by applying excess throttle, and drove 3 miles to the MB dealer. The technician said he was familiar with this type of problem...mentioned oil getting into a harness and control module, wrong signals being sent to the tranny and total destruction of the tranny. Yesterday, he confirmed that my tranny's completely gone.

I'm now trying to assess my position. Bought the car 8 months ago with 75K miles (now 85K) for 10 grand below blue book. Didn't get mechanical breakdown insurance because of the cost and I've been lucky with cars until now. Considering my large down payment, I feel I'm in too deep to let the car go. Except for the tranny problem, the car looks and runs beautifully (ha ha). Thinking about asking MB to help with the repair bill. The car's been well maintained and for the tranny to go out with no pre-warning or anything is unbelievable to me and reflects poorly on MB. Drove an Accord to 290K and never had a power or drive train problem.

Guess I'm worried that after getting this fixed, I'll possibly be looking at other expensive repairs as the car approaches 100K. Thanks for any ideas or comments anyone might have? Sorry for the long message.

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99 SL 500
96 E320