I was driving home from dinner last night ... and after completing a right turn at normal speeds ... the ASR warning message splashed across the instrument panel message area. The engine continued to run at nominal idle, however I could not throttle up the engine and there was no propulsion to the rear wheels. I pulled over to the extreme right apron of the road, out of the way of traffic, and turned the engine off ... waited about 30 seconds and restarted the engine. The ASR light did not come back on ... I drove about 4 miles to home without incident.

Are there any suggestions as to how I should proceed to diagnose, correct, remedy the problem? I have to use this car to ferry my 86 year old mother back and forth across Alligator Alley and I can't afford to have it break down on that desolate road with an old lady in the car.

I've got a 1996 E320, with 57,000 miles on the odo. I bought the car new and my maintenance has been and continues to be impeccable and beyond that which is called for in the owners manual by MB. The only other thing that has required action beyond preventive maintenance is a CEL light of P170 which appeared two weeks hence, which I tracked down to a "potential" MAF failure. I removed the MAF, cleaned the sensor plate with a non-residue/high quality electronic component spray cleaner and dried it with compressed air. I cleared the CEL code and replaced the MAF ... and the CEL has not come back on (yet).

I would appreciate any and all assistance. Thank you.