I don't think most of the independents know yet that the Crossfire is just a restyled SLK320/SLK32. It is best to not make phone calls and drive the car in. I went to a local independent shop, raised the hood and asked if they would feel comfortable working on it. The guy looked really suprised! and yelled for all the other service techs to come and take a look. They recognized that is was all SLK and said sure. This shop ended up being where I did all the electronic work to get my V8 conversion done. There are some things to be aware of though. The German independent shops have the Mercedes Star Diagnostic system which can't do everything they might need to check on our cars. Our cars require DRB III with the Crossfire card which most German shops will not have. The MB system can get into a n/a engine computer but not the SRT computer. Many repairs such as brakes they can do if they can work on a SLK.