Thanks for the detailed response and I'm going to hope that you're right about everything being good today with the possible exception of needing to reflash software.
FWIW, as of right now in Germany, all G320CDI's are embargoed ("Gesperrt") from delivery to customers who ordered them; and are sitting on dealers' lots waiting for a fix (software) for the 7G-Tronic and ESP issues.
I drove a ML 320 CDI today. Damn, there are a bunch of whistles and bells on that thing! Going back tomorrow for my wife to see it; and probably to order one built.
Thanks again for your post!
Happy Trails!
PS - I will be replacing a minivan as my daily driver with what a friend of mine calls the ML - "a minivan on steroids".
PPS - I just hope that ULSD is not too hard to find.
