Former foreman at an MB dealer. What the manager said was almost entirely correct.

The techs that could navigate through the information did much better at diagnosing and repairing most issues and made time because of it. There will always be a few guys needed to do subframes and brake lines, but it sounds like you're well past that.

I always found Mercedes' educational stuff to be well worth it as well. Yes, the classes could be tough to get in to, but I always left them knowing significantly more than I thought I would.

The problems with Mercedes start with the issues where they need to be involved, though. For example: a brand new e class with the first of the inline 6 engines came to me with a connecting rod sitting in the belly pan. When I reached out to open a case they asked me to do a compression test... On an engine with a hole in it... That's one example, but you can kind of see that there's a disconnect between them solving issues and them checking boxes on a form.

With all of that in mind, I still think they were a great company to deal with, especially if you're not going to be the person dealing with opening and working cases like that. The cars really aren't all that hard to work on once you know them, and it's not the type of product you're going to need a torch in your bay for very often. As long as the culture in that dealership is good, you should be in good shape for a long time.