E class Turbo Diesel, intermittent no start

Friend of mine has a mid 2000s E class wagon with the turbo diesel. A month ago he hit a raccoon at a high rate of speed and the bumper, spoiler, radiator, and condenser needed to be replaced. While it was there, the shop manager noticed it would not always start, so they replaced the battery as well.

Since then, you can put the key in, turn it on, and everything on the dash comes up, but go to crank and nothing.. anywhere from half a dozen to 2 dozen times later, the starter will engage and it will start as normally.

To me it sounds like MB's immobilizer is doing funny things.. but why not all the time? It almost always starts first thing in the morning.. but after a couple of stops, it wants you to play with the key until it feels like engaging the starter

Sounds like a bad starter that only works cold.

but wouldn't a bad starter make some noise? we are talking -nothing- until it finally decides to start. Not a click, not a whirr, just turn the key and... after a few of those, it starts like it always did.

The times I have had a bad starter it was just dead, plain and simple. No click, no sound no nuthin'.

Depends how it fails. If I'm thinking right, if the solenoid coil is failing and not proving enough force hot to engage the starter and hit the contacts you'll get nothing. I'm no expert in these cars but it doesn't sound like an immobilizer to me. Knowing if the old battery was actually tested would be somewhat helpful.