Everything you said is totally true. The thing you will have to remember is, this thing is a consumer Mercedes Benz under those fine lined body panels. And unfortunately for about the past ten years, the Head of Daimler ran Mercedes into the ground, unless you were talking about Formula 1 racing. If we had a tenth of the technology in a McLaren Formula race car. We would have a better electrical system, a more Reliable Transmission as a whole (6 spd, as well as the Auto Stick) granted AMG does has contributed with a stronger gearbox, and F1 EGS Program...Wait I think I found that Tenth!
What I am getting at is... our cars unfortunately were basically just a wash from Mercedes all the way down the line to Chrysler. They are pretty much all Frankensteined. I found that at least 35% of the Crossfire line have ECU's and Tranny Modules that would actually go in a 02'/03' E class MB. I'm thinking that is why so many are having timing issues, or rough idles, etc... If they were thinking of keep the crossfire around for a while, and wanted to put money into the system. Then we could expect the new SLK 350's to be put into action Crossfire style with in the next 2/3 yrs. But I wouldn't hold my breath. It would be nice to have that "F-1" Inspired Chassis under my Crossfires skin. But that is just me.