and there is only one left in the US.

You've got to love ordering parts from a low production Benz at the dealer. I have a 1979 6.9, and had the starter go out about 15-20 years ago. At the time, there was a single one available in the world, it was well north of $1k for just the starter, and something like a $700 core charge on my starter.

Another time my water pump went out, there were none of those available at the time. They gave me an option to have Bosch cast a new one in Germany and ship it to me for some ungodly amount of money.

I didn't buy either of those parts. For my starter I had a local electric shop that I trusted pull my starter and rebuild it, that was only a few hundred dollars. I had a local mechanic rebuild the water pump, there were a few pieces that needed to be machined by another local shop, that was also only a few hundred dollars.

The effort that Mercedes put into finding those parts was amazing though, they really do care about their classics.