I don’t know about Mercedes but at least on Chevys the throttle body sits right on top of the engine where a carburetor would have sat.
Well, it’s a new game altogether when the car has fuel injectors instead of a carburetor. And Mercedes is not beholden to any other automaker.
Throttle body is fuel injection. It’s just a more primitive type than direct injection.
The throttle body is just a housing for the butterfly valve. It might have some coolant running through it, maybe it houses the throttle position sensor, if you have drive-by-wire it will have a DC motor on it to control the valve position, otherwise there’s just a cable connected to your gas pedal. It’s not inside the engine and it’s not an ordeal to get to.
Throttle body injection is a type of fuel injection that utilizes a single injector at the throttle body. But you have a throttle body even if you have port or direct injection. Some engines without camshafts don’t need throttle bodies but that’s a much newer technology than 1994.
If you have a carburetor you don’t have a throttle body, but you do have a butterfly valve (or valves) and a cable connected from those valves to the gas pedal, so people often equate the two.
You’re talking about throttle body injection, with the fuel injector(s) located in or atop the throttle body. We’re not. We’re talking about the throttle body itself, which is a component in the air induction portion of the fuel injection/air induction system.
No, all engines have throttles*. With older carbureted designs, they were built into the carburetor or were in a throttle body attached to the carb; with fuel injected engines they’re in a stand-alone throttle body. Mercedes might not always make the throttle body as accessible as some other makes, though.
*Except this newfangled design.
Well, it’s outside the engine itself, but might be tucked under the intake manifold. Follow the ducting you’ve been talking about and you’ll find it.
Yes, they can easily cost that much and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s noticeably higher on a Mercedes. It’s certainly critical (as are many other parts), but I would call it a fuel injection/air induction component rather than an engine component.
Whoops! Make that THIS newfangled design.
No camshafts? What controls the intake and exhaust valves, then?
Pneumatic actuators on top of each cylinder. Check the link in post #28 for more info.
Koenigsegg’s thing is not in production. there is no regular production reciprocating (piston) engine which doesn’t have one or more camshafts.
Not sure where the VVEL system on Nissan’s VQ37 fits in. It doesn’t have throttle bodies or conventional camshafts but the valves are mechanically actuated.
Nope. BMW’s Valvetronic system uses variable valve timing and lift to replace the throttle.
Sorry, links suck on mobile. Valvetronic - Wikipedia
Another one o’ them newfangled designs. Now get that car off my lawn.
Truly newfangled cars tend not to be on lawns in the first place. Unless, you know, somebody hit the lottery. 
It’s still being throttled, just by the valves themselves instead of an independent throttle body.
Not to pile on, but most Diesel engines don’t have throttles.
Sure, the valves function as a throttle, but there’s nothing there that would be identified as a throttle in the traditional sense. No throttle plate or butterfly valve or the like.
Then get those diesels off my lawn too!
Yeah, I knew that but was only thinking of gasoline engines. Internal combustion, reciprocating piston gasoline engines. Of traditional design. Should have specified. 
What would you want to warm intake air for? Isn’t that going to make the engine run less efficiently?