Im a firm believer that MB does not want to deal with these car anymore, hence the outrageous prices they quote for any maintenance or parts. When I replaced all the tie rods on my 81 300D I got all the parts for about 60 bucks and paid a local guy another 40 to install. Out of curiosity I went over to the MB dealer and quoted the same job and parts, the price for the tie rods there was 1500 bucks plus 2 hours labor. so a total of 1800 bucks. I then showed them the receipt for the work already done including parts and questioned why exactly they where so much more... the counter guy was totally shocked and double checked everything, my "cheap" parts even came from the same place as theirs would...

Everything I have dealt with on these cars is the same story, I needed some of that branded return line between the injectors, My cost including shipping was about 6 bucks, MB price was almost 45...

That's not just a markup. it's robbery. It would make for an interesting article.