7.1
pretty bad- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 8,250 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.
Two failures of Wheel Speed Sensors. Right Front was first and just caused the computer to shut down anti lock breaking system. Most recent was Left Rear and caused transimission to go into -??Limp-??
- Salem, OR, USA
Engine on and vehicle parked for 10 minutes with parking brake applied. Leaving from a parked position with engine running, parking brake released, I shifted from park into drive but the vehicle showed I was still in park. Could hear transmission shifting from P to D and to R but no information feedback. Eventually I found that I could engage in reverse, neutral, park, and drive but only park was showing on display. I tried restarting the van but it didn't change. Received errors for turning car off while in drive even though I was in park. I ended up driving with the car in "park" for about 100 miles to my destination. During the drive, there were lots of errors mainly the speedometer would not work ( had power but only said 0 mph). The tachometer remained at ~800rpm regardless of actual RPM. The gas gauge wouldn't work. Numerous errors occurred with the active braking system (alarm only). The SRS defective indicator remained on the entire drive. When I reached my destination (gas station), shifted to park. I turned the car off again and completely disconnected everything electrical and let the van sit for ~5 minutes. The errors cleared when I restarted and the speedometer/tachometer/gas/SRS all worked but I had a new check engine light activated. The only message was still related to SRS but the cel stayed on even after acknowledging the service message. After about ~200 miles and 3-4 restarts the cel cleared and everything worked properly for the remainder of our trip (about 1000 miles round trip). Later, I was able to recreate a similar system malfunction when applying the parking brake. I've since been able to conjur random errors all related with safety systems and the park/drive/reverse scenario 50% of the time after applying and releasing the parking brake. The errors only happen after activation and release of the parking brake (so far to this day).
- Camas, WA, USA
Mercedes claimes that the Metris is able to tow 5000lbs. We bought the vehicle new with the tow package factory installed. Mercedes never disclosed the fact that it's wiring harness included in the package does not operate electric trailer brakes and that no factory or third party option is available. We almost had an accident due to our inability to stop quickly enough. Thats how we found out that the factory installed trailer wiring harness does not operate electric brakes. Mercedes should have warned us about this issue. The factory trailer wiring harness includes a 7 wire connector, but is only wired for 6. it controls brake lights, turn signals, running lights but not electric brakes. I filed a complaint with Mercedes corporate and stated how this is a safety issue. Customers may wrongly assume that their electric trailer brakes are being activated when applying the vehicles brakes. Without trailer brakes, most tow payloads are limited to 2500lbs. 5000lbs is way beyond the safe limit. Mercedes stated that there is no way for the Metris to activate electric brakes. I believe that Mercedes needs to warn customers of this specific design flaw. Most light duty trailers and campers in the usa use electric brakes. Our almost accident happened on the I35 South of waco tx. We were at highway speed when the traffic came to a sudden stop. Luckily we had a large enough distance between us and the cars stopping ahead. We had a car at the last moment swerve into our lane and stop. Now we were trying to come to an emergency stop. We had to depart our lane to keep from rear ending the car. We later found out that our trailer brake we not being activated and that was the cause of our increased stopping distance.
- Lakeside, TX, USA
- Long Beach, CA, USA