It will be interesting to see how this plays out because Mercedes provides access to the same workshop manuals a dealer has via a subscription to anybody on their website. However, the diagnostic tool to communicate with the car and the accompanying software is around $20,000. Well out of reach for home techs, but a necessity for any indy shop. Technically Mercedes is allowing anybody to repair, but without pricing controls they can make it excessively expensive.
Luckily for about $300 you can get a working “clone” from alibaba, then pay someone $50 to install a cracked version of the workshop software on a laptop.
There is no reason these devices and the accompanying software need to be so expensive.
Some interesting pricing models I’ve seen before, are with a BUDS system for Seadoo. For $200 I get a controller and a license that ties the software to my ski. Since a workshop would be repairing many skis, the “unlimited” license is significantly more. I think a similar system could be adopted here for Mercedes at least.
Also, incredibly thankful for 3rd party manufacturers of replacement parts. Especially the companies that offer electronic repair services. A simple ABS module can be $900 from the dealer, then needs to be programmed. Meanwhile you could send this to a competent electronics repair shop that could diagnose and repair the device for a fraction of that, and eliminate the need to reprogram the device for your car after.