I think it's more a matter of most non-euro OEM's don't care or don't figure anyone is gong to bother dong maintinance like that so they just save the ink in the book. What does a person who buys a 94 for instance pontiac do as soon as it's out of warranty?
Take it to the cheapest place and do as little as possible and drive it till something really $$ breaks, then sell it. Or they trade it in on something still under waranty. This is the way cheap cars and cheap people generaly work. I deal with them every day of the week. I constantly replace master cylinders, calipers, radiators, transmissions, engines, anything and everyithing of late 90's cars with barely 100K on them. It's pathetic.

As others said, if you follow the common sense MB maintinance practices on other vehicles, you'll get simlilier results. I was doing this pretty much before I had ever driven an MB.

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One more Radar Lover gone...
1982 VW Caddy diesel 406K 1.9L AAZ
1994 E320 195K