I was told by my service adviser that software updates (I was asking about the "delayed acceleration" issue posted several weeks ago) are issued on a case-by-case basis for the particular problem affected. Namely, when you are in for service, the dealer emails Germany, and Germany is bound to answer within 1 hour from the time of the request. When a software fix is issued, he said it is only valid on the day issued. It can't be saved and installed later.

The reason this all came up is that, after the hour, they got an email (I saw it) that the system in Germany was down, and it would be at least 2 hours before a response would be sent. I chose not to wait, and will try again later. I was just in for a tire rotation.

I wonder if anyone else has heard this? The service advisor has been there 12 years, is great to work with; the dealership has the most customer-oriented people I've come across and has a super facility; they have a MB Guild Tech in the shop; they all go to the factory training; and there was no other reason to show me the email and go into the detail about the fix being valid for a day---so I believe him. He said the reason they expire had to do with fixes for different countries and different emission rules, and reducing the risk that a non-US model fix applied through file swapping might change the performance and emission characteristics of an engine in a US car.

I don't know if it applies to all software or just engine software. Anyone have any facts?

well, I guess they feel they cannot trust the dealer to correctly archive the software images and apply them to the cars "as needed", on their own. considering we have one fellow on this board whose wheel wasn't attached, maybe its a good policy! but you would think they could maintain some kind of central control of the software archives at the dealerships. maybe the only thing that comes via that 1 hour email is some kind of activation key.