The autobox in my '98 Altima still works great after 180K miles, and the one in a friend's '90 300E was a pleasure up to around 200K, though by then that car had other issues.
While I think I've had more than my share of problems with Mercedes automatics, my main gripe is that many of the old ones just don't work that well. And many tranny-shops just see $$$$$ when one enquires about repairing a Benz autobox.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW