As requested... an update!

I didn't drive the car much over the winter, and the few times I did, I ran into a new problem: if I let the car idle for 1-3 minutes, and then put the car back into drive and drive off, you could feel the car shake a bit when you accelerated, and the next time the car came to a stop (at a light or an intersection) the car quit on me.

so, i decided to bite the bullet and pay my local dealer the $ to diagnose. Apparently they looked a bit at the fuel system found it not to be the issue, and then "got it to fail real hard" and found the engine code to be the crankshaft position sensor.

so, the problem now is that the dealer wants a ton of money to repair it. ~375.00 (on top of the $150.00 spent on diagnosis). So, I call up our local mechanic (who definitely does not specialize in mercedes - i originally took it to him to get it diagnosed and he point blank said that he didn't have the computer gizmos to properly read the codes) and the part will cost $100.00 and the labor will be $65.00 (shop rate is 65.00 per hour)

so my new question:

is $100.00 for the part and 1 hour of labor sufficient to perform the work?

most importantly, however, is this something that someone who is not a mercedes-trained mechanic can properly do?

(i'm not a car buff so I don't know how varying under-the-hood configurations and set ups make a task difficult or easy or impossible for someone who hasn't done it before)


thanks for everyone's help here!