I'm a valet driver, so I park a fair number of Benzes.

On new mercedes, sometimes the gas drops to idle, no matter what pressure I have putting on the accelerator pedal...unles I stomp on the gas.

This is gas or diesel engines...new cars mind you.

The engine dosen't stall out, so its not a fuel starvation problem...some strange throttle body phenomena perhaps?

Don't use dead dinos for fuel:
let 'em rest in peace!

I don't know anything about Mercedes, but I know sometimes the "fly-by-wire" throttle system on the newer GM pickups can exhibit somewhat similar phenomena. I guess the computer is trying to decide if you really need to accelerate or not. So, if the Mercedes has a similar system with no direct linkage, that may be a quirk of it.

Keep everything as simple as possible, but no simpler

--Albert Einstein

Enola,

Could be the result of the 'valet key'. It's not just on Mercedes either. I first learned of it on the Chevy Corvette. There is a special key for the Vette which limits the throttle response so that valets cannot go joy riding in customers 60k dollar automobile. (not that you would do anything like that ) Blessings. Joe.