I've read a few (very detailed) fixes for the park lock problem: ie you can't shift out of park into drive. If you're really handy (I'm not) follow some of the excellent posts (do a search).

For a temp fix try this:

Make sure the car is warm. Center the steering wheel. Take out the key. Turn on the car and SLOWLY rotate the steering wheel lock to lock while trying to shift to drive (foot on the brake). Eventually you will slip into drive.

That's it. I don't know why that works but it does for me.

Caveats:

I have a 2004 S600. It HATES the cold. I mean REALLY HATES the cold. My NAV doesn't properly function and I even get the dreaded ABC VISIT WORKSHOP message on my dash sometimes. When the car is warm things are much better but getting going sucks. So make sure the car has idled enough and is warm (the above doesn't work for me when the car is cold).

I have already had the park lock changes by Mercedes some 60k miles ago (was around 60k miles). I do not want to spend another $1000 fixing it again (last time was covered under warrantee).

It is a nightmare getting stuck in park away from home. Like I said I'm no gear head although I really wish I was. Turning the wheel back and forth from lock to lock has gotten me out of a couple jams but you have to turn the wheel very very slowly or it doesn't work. It may take you 10-15 min but if you are waiting for a row anyways there is no harm in trying.

I hope this helps someone and my apologies for a new post on a well addressed subject (I just didn't see anything about turning the steering wheel to get it into drive).

Post a reply if this helped anyone.

Good luck with this, my favorite, body style!