1999 MERCEDES BENZ M CLASS User Comment / Complaint

I was driving across the verrazano narrows bridge from brooklyn to staten island. just past the tolls, my harmonic balancer failed, causing the serpentine belt to sizes and stopping the engine. consequently, i lost steering and braking became very hard. i was more-or-less pointing to an shoulder/embankment between the main highway and the exit immediately past the tolls. i coasted to that embankment and used its slope in part to help stop the vehicle. i was subsequently towed to ray catena mercedes in edison, nj. i was informed by the service advisor there (mr. hessert) that this failure was part of a "campaign" and that it would be repaired along with any collateral damage "for free" by mercedes. i asked "since when" was this campaign in effect, they stated since april of 2005. i asked why i was not notified of this as i am the registered owner. we both together then called mercedes customer service and were informed that there was no 'notice' and that this was not a formal recall. had this failure happened 40 minutes earlier while i was on the long island expressway, or 10 minutes later when i would have been on the goethals bridge, i would have been at the very least severely injured if not dead not to mention any other vehicles and individuals who would inevitably been involved. i am told that the _defective_ harmonic balancer will be replaced along with the serpentine belt and the "upper oil pan" as that part was damaged during the failure. i will request that these parts be retained.