I might be off on the model year, dad's had too many MBs for me to keep track of.

Yes the clip is designed to be permanent. I know that peen links are available, but none of the peen links at his local MB dealer would fit the replacement chain, they're all way too big, and the parts guy told him he doesn't have a listing for a peen type link for that chain, it only comes with the clip, which you cannot buy seperately. It sounds strange to me that a lighter chain would replace the original, but that seems like what MB has done.