general problems of the 2003 Mercedes Benz ML350

I own a mercedes ml 350 2003; while driving the car to work this morning the car stopped accelerating, became disabled and steering, became impossible. The car slowed on its own while I was in traffic on a major road with speed limits up to 40 mph and I was unable to move the car into the shoulder creating a major safety issue. Eventually the car coasted onto the shoulder and all lights became illuminated on the dashboard. Upon having it towed to Mercedes Benz I was told that it was initially a key failure in which communication between the key and the computer in the car could be lost which would result in a loss of power to the vehicle. After my reaction which was "and you guys are comfortable with that" I was told that instead it was the crank shaft sensor. Currently mercedes has a recall pending or being considered on one of there 2007 models for the same problem, but this was not covered under warranty and is not currently a recall, but should be. There are numerous complaints on the web regarding this issue.