I have been told a number of times that it is the worst render with Maya and that the likes of Renderman and Vray are much more stable, faster as well as easier to use.
I have often had problems with mental ray and simply put this down to hardware but I am working with a very decent set up and mental ray still acts up.
The other guys I work with are often laughing at how much crap it gives me as they work with cinema 4d and I am yet to see them have any problems.
It may just be me but I keep all of my files clearly labeled in the outliner and always keep the history clean.
At the end of the day it cannot hurt to try another render especially if it turns out to improve the speed I can complete work at and help improve my sanity.

That said I don't want to start an argument about which render is best or any of that nonsense. I simply want to try out another alternative to see if it can assist me in speeding up my workflow.

Cheers