I remember years ago, the US Army used to require oil samples be sent to a centralized lab for analysis. Don't know if still do it, but they did quit before I left because it was costing more to pull, ship, analyze and report findings than they were "saving."
Also, MB's use synthetic oil which is reason for 10,000 miles or one year. Manufacturers of newer cars using regular oil recommend 7,500 miles or every six months. Dealerships still recommend 3,000 miles because they want your MONEY.
As maintenance heavy as MB vehicles are, whatever MB recommends on oil changes has got to be correct.

 

My Audi A4 2.0T also calls for 10,000 mile oil change intervals. Since it also burns about a quart (and replaced with a fresh quart) I don'7 have a problem with the 10k interval

 

My 2010 has 10k miles so I have opted to extend intervals to every 2 years as I never will reach mileage change interval 1st. I honestly don't think the time intervals should really even apply on synthetic oils. Just run it till you reach mileage limit. My show truck I change every 2 or 3 years, it generally has around 300 miles on oil and looks as fresh as the day I poured it in.