I only read the initial post, so here is my experience I hope I am not repetitive: When my wife was in law school, she had a 190E 2.6 and was still on the parental dole (prior to our marriage). If the windshield wiper blade needed replacing, to the dealer it went and the bill went to daddy and he paid them and never even knew it. When I sold the car several years later, I got all the service receipts and for the most part they were reasonable and no unnecessary fishing type crap you would expect when you know the bill is going to be paid by a guy who owns a lot of MBs, lives out of State and can't complain in person ect.......Dealer changed hands and I buy another MB in 2000. All of the prior service guys left to start independant shops and there was a fresh crop of new MB tech graduates because the new owner was an absentee owner with a quesitonable reputation. I took my diesel there one time. I asked them to check certain things (I learned from Gilly on another site and from this one) and they guys did all sorts of unecessary diagnostics and spent alot of time on things I didn't request. They charged me for the privilege and didn't fix the problem. I took it to one of the old mechs next who is now an Indie and we are together after 7 years He did what I asked him to do--no more no less.

Only advice I can offer is that unless under warranty, this isn't a situationn where an insurance company is going to foot the bill for an MRI, ECG, Cat Scan, ect.....so if a customer says he has done some research, check this first before doing anything else and let me know--I would use that dealership rather than my local one.