10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 34 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
My husband was driving the car with my 10 year old son on I276 at 55mph when the brakes failed. Luckily enough there was no car in front of them and since they were on a highway he had time to stop without causing an accident or crushing. We towed the car to the Mercedes dealership and we were told that sbc failed and we have to pay $2000. Had the car towed to Mercedes Benz of fort Washington in fort Washington, pa. The dealer examined the vehicle and said the sbc unit has to be replaced and the cost is $2000. I did some research and it appears that I was not the only customer with this major safety problem. This unit failed on many customers and apparently there was an extended warranty offered up to 10 years. I have to say that I was very disappointed that Mercedes never notified its customers of this situation. The dealer never notified me of this potential problem and they expect me to pay the repair cost for a safety issue that should have been addressed"? to make matters worse, after I reached out to Mercedes-Benz usa, I was told that the part would have been covered under the 10 year term only if it failed which is an appalling statement. So I would have to crash before the part is replaced?" this is the absolutely most ridiculous thing I have ever heard from a car manufacturer. I have asked the representative for his manager's contact information and he refused to provide it. The sbc unit should be covered at no expense to the consumer because it was known faulty safety issue.
- Huntingdon Valley, PA, USA
I purchased a 2003 Mercedes Benz E320 custom ordered. There are erratic, inconsistent, intermittent problems of defective brake operation, radio, cd, seat controls, instrumentation, windows control, tire pressure indication, restraint system, transmission operation, SRS system. These problems occur randomly. Twice, when I needed to brake quickly the brakes did not stop the car. The brake assist feature did not work. The car's brakes are terrible and unreliable, and constitute safety danger on the road. There are numerous malfunctions reported by car indicated on the instrument panel. All or most of these problems are electrical system problems associated with the gateway module*software*.the can-bus system on car, which also controls brakes, does not have correctly-operations of ware, and it affects most electrical and mechanical system functions in the car. There are data collisions and packet conflicts on the bus because the software is not written correctly or the computer system and software is overloaded. Reading over the 55 2003 E320 complaints on your website, it is clear that most of them are due to this software problem. The car has been brought back to the selling dealer, Mercedes Benz of san diego, *over 50 times*during the years 2003-2007 with no solution. The car warranty is set to expire in a week, and these problems are not yet fixed. The nhtsb demand Mercedes Benz either redesign the system or rewrite the software and test it for about 40,000 hours, or replace the vehicles with post-2003 E-class models, free of charge the nhtsb has been duped by Mercedes Benz into believing that replacing hardware components solve these problems the nhtsb should test the network software by examining data flows and function calls during the operation of the electrical and mechanical system features of an E320 and diagnose for data collisions and packet conflicts during automobile feature operation.
- San Diego, CA, USA
I own a Mercedes E 500, year 2004.I found out about the recall for the brake problem after I almost kill myself when the brake system failed yesterday. The Mercedes failed to inform the consumer esp. This kind of defect. I found out that this recall was since may and had to experience myself before receiving the recall letter. This is not a good bussiness practice and in fact a negligence on the part of the company. This can cause my life and may others who own the same model of car in whom I know a few and they have not received any recall letter.
- Coral Gables, FL, USA
The vehicle's gear shift became very hot when the vehicle was parked in the sun for a long period of time. As a result the driver burned his hands. Please provide any additional information.
- Poway, CA, USA
The 2003 Mercedes Benz E320 has a faulty gateway module and software. This module has resulted in problems being reported in my car that the brakes, self restraint system, telephone system, and tire pressure have failed. I have no way of knowing if the the safty systems are operational or not. At this point I am driving a car that says my SRS system is not working. I have been in the Mercedes shop no less than 4 times to have the problem repaired. It simply re-occurs after each repair. From research on the internet, this appears to be a common problem.
- Tyler, TX, USA
- Astoria, NY, USA