Has Mercedes reached the point of not having parts in stock for 15 year old cars? I always thought that a major advantage of owning MB's was that parts would always be readily available (whatever the cost). When my SLS high pressure hydraulic hose failed in 1996 on my 1983 300TD (returning from vacation and occurring in, of all places, Virginia) we limped home with a 5 gallon container of cheap hydraulic fluid. Once home in Florida, I was able to obtain in one day the high pressure hydraulic hose through the MB spare parts system. Don't remember the price but it wasn't too bad. As I recall, the cause was the hose chafing on the fan belt pulley. We always had the MB part supply situation pretty good in Jacksonville since one of MB's regional depots was here. Since has been moved to Orlando I think. Maybe MB doesn't think that their cars will last 15 years anymore so they don't need to have the parts available.