Bud,

I understand your concern about going so long without opening the hood. I am almost 55, so I go back to the days when we absolutely wore out our hood hinges because the cars needed so much maintenance and repair.

There are many things about the modern cars, particularly MB's that seem hard to get used to. An example is no dipstick.

The good news is that the cars really are that good these days. I'm not in any way trying to encourage you to keep the hood closed. I still open my hood and get underneath for oil changes just to check things, but the cars really don't need it very much.

Just change the oil, keep an eye on things and it'll go.

Enjoy,