My understanding is that Mercedes labor rates are quite high. I am very fortunate to have a life long mechanic that I know I can trust. Those folks will do any work on my car that is not warranty work. This is actually the same routine I have with every car I've ever owned. I never go to the dealer unless it's warranty work or a recall. Once in very long while I have something really small that needs to be dealt with, those rare instances I will go to the dealer, as my mechanic is a half hour drive away. It doesn't make sense to drive that far to replace a bulb in one of my rear lights, when the Toyota dealer is right around the corner from where I live...

My Smart dealer to be is roughly the same amount of driving time as it is to my mechanic, but I expect to follow the same routine that I have with my Toyota now.