One of the problems that came with the Mercedes was a stuck rear door. The problem is that the lock (one of those vertical pull/push arrangements) won't pull up further than about halfway. Thus, the door can't be unlocked, and so it can't be opened.
Thankfully, Mercedes put two-piece door cards on this car. Unlike most cars, which have a single piece of plastic and cardboard which runs along the entire inside of the door and up into the glass channel, the Mercedes features one big card and a piece which sits over the top inside door edge. Popping this cover off and pulling the card back reveals the door's guts. The picture at right is looking approximately down (and back) into the door from just behind where the driver's headrest is. The lovely green vinyl to the left is the rear seat.
The problem is that from here, there's still not a whole lot I can do. I can't get a really good look at the lock mechanism but from what I can tell, the locking cam is siezed on something near the bottom of the assembly—which is bad, because I don't have immediate access to that. I've tried cramming the cam lobe past the ... unlocking tang thing, but I need about another 1/8" of clearance before it will actually unlock. That's a lot when you're working with really thick metal.
My options now are to remove the back seat and door card so I can get to the bottom of the lock, but there's a chance I'll have to take the front door hinges off and swing the whole door out the wrong way in order to get everything unjammed...but that sounds like a pain in the ass. Oh, I said options; the second option is to bend the locking cam so it'll clear the other parts, but I'm afraid of busting the latch completely, and these things are usually expensive.
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