hey guys, first thanks for all your suggestions.....I ordered a brand new key as some suggested it might just be a worn key....and the new key did not work......I played with that steering wheel pretty hard and no turn......BUT here is the confusion......Mercedes Service is telling me that it might not be a tumbler/cylinder issues.....that it perhaps maybe a steering column issues.....can someone please educate me on the difference.....AND should I just have this car towed to the dealer and let them mess with it and fix it or should I go to an outside mechanic who takes the dealers "overflow" work??? I thought that I would also mention that two days before the key would not turn, I had the throttle cable replaced and the distributor caps replaced...all due to low performance.....and then went to have two new tires put in.....SO does this all have a part in this mess or am I just paranoid.........thanks.....