What I meant was that you can't just walk into any key shop and buy a key and go out and steal a Mercedes. Even a dealer won't sell you a key if you provide the VIN (which is typically visible through the windshield) without proof of ownership, as you say. I do not know what the independent shops do, only that they are few and far between. For all I know, they may require proof of ownership too. Once I learned that the indy charged as much or more than the dealer, I lost interest.

Clearly this makes it hard for the person who has just bought a car, especially from a private party, a semi-abandoned relic with no keys, when it takes awhile to come up with the correct paperwork. OTOH, it probably isn't your daily driver.

New Mercedes come with several keys but by time the car is a few years old, some keys are lost and not replaced. This is one of the things that should be in the "Mercedes for Idiots" book: always make sure you have spare keys and that they work.

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970