It's all one big happy family.Key,brake pedal,steering wheel,shift console..........Have you tried wiggling the steering wheel side to side a little ,when you put it into park and try to remove the key?Could be an issue with the steering lock.
another thing to rule out
ohlord

 

Hi,

How did you solve this problem????

I'm currently having this same problem/issue here in April 2014. The key is stuck in the ignition and the car is stuck in park.

She will start and the wheels do turn. I just can't get her to shift out of park.

On top of all that, I know I have to replace brakes (the brake lining wear light/message came on). I'm pretty sure I need a MAF as well (check engine light on also).

Here are the codes I have:
P0125
P0196
P0234
P0299
P0357
P0443
P0455
P0736
P1143
U0001
U0101
U0106

Any help you suggest is appreciated!

 

I recently bought a 2004 SL500. Beautiful body. Great engine - only 72,000 miles. Handles well. But there the beauty ends. I think MB hired migrant workers to design/build the interiors. Everything is ABS plastic and is just shattering after drying out over 22 years. I pulled the parking brake lever and the whole unit pulled out of the lower dash. It now has baling wire holding it together until I can score a lower driver side dash.

Anyway, early on I ran into the sticking key problem. I had just had two keys made by (as I learned later) a less-than-reputable key smith. The car would start but I couldn't shift it out of Park. At first I thought it was the key. And that might have been the case but I found that turning the key counter-clockwise with a bit of force freed it up. The shifter moved again and the problem only occurred once more a few days later. That was over a month ago and everything seems to be working now. Well, the keyless entry doesn't work and that's another problem to solve.