Arthur,
Thank you so much for your erudite response. I will show it to my mechanic. He was concerned that it would not pass Smog Chek here because here they require a CE light. The car spent the last 100K in California with numerous Smog Cheks so apparently there is a way around the missing CE light.
When he pulled the codes a number of them came up such as 3rd brake light, neutral safety switch, etc. He is waiting on parts and will run the codes again after repairs are made. I'll send them on to you.
Thanks so much,
Neil Mahony (Anziani)

Very good..
Be aware that both NSS and Stop lamp sw failures are common limp causes
w/ASR chassis.........regardless of Cal or Fed versions

__________________
A Dalton

Well, after two weeks at the shop, the car is back. After we pulled the first set of codes, we started seeing many problems in the engine compartment. There were missing disconnected vacuum lines, no hookup to the EGR system, bare wires in the starter harness, etc. There were many more things to be upgraded that aren't worth mentioning.
We did an oil-filter change and were shocked to see the most crudded up, collapsed oil filter the mechanic had ever seen. While this poor car had been serviced by Mercedes for the first 120K, it was ignored the next 50K.
It has been started 10-15 times since our upgrading and the strange initial starting problem has not returned.
We added Auto-RX to the oil and will start the cleanup since the sludge buildup was ghastly. The car runs like a dream, passed CA smog with flying colors and will now get the loving care a CE deserves.
My wife and I are taking a picnic lunch and a bottle of wine and are driving to Borrego Springs today to see the desert wildflowers..... in our new (to us) CE.
Thank you Arthur and the others who made suggestions originally.
Anziani

Under those conditions a 112 or 113 motor would have been dead years ago.