Consider this. I live in Arizona. If we don't take a long trip, we may only put 5-6K miles on the car a year. At that rate, it could be two years before the FSS system authorizes MBUSA service. Now anyone who lives in Arizona knows that it's really dusty and it's also really hot. It's insane to go 2 years w/o looking at the air filter or even opening the hood. It's also insane to think that even the extended interval filter will go two years installed in an engine that has to deal with 116 degree heat in stop and go traffic with the A/C running.

I'm personally happy that MBUSA is dropping the free (built into the price of the car) maintenance. I'm also hoping that US cars will get the European Assyst system in place of the FSS system so the owner can reset it himself and (hopefully) have the dealer program it to suit the owners requirements.