Struts and braking system have been unstable since I purchased the car. Wiring harness leaks oil and caused ecu to intermintinli turn off and on. Also the heat control timing caused car to over heat. Eventually I replaced the ecu 2 years ago at dealer. Mercedes has parts that are not safe to be in these operating conditions with such heat causeing wiring harness to short out and dealer said that and still put new ecu saying it was oil that damaged ecu. Mechanicly didn-??t make sense but now due to recall it all makes sense. Ecu was never programmed correctly causeing unsafe driving hazards.

- Daly City , CA, USA

Error code P0019 cam sensor bank B, manufacturers used defective part that timing sprocket teeth have eroded due to defective parts used which have and will cause vehicle to stahl while running. Both front struts wear on all models that cause driving conditions that can cause death while driver excelration or stopping cause

- Bowie, MD, USA

Was driving and car just makes a jolt while shifting gear than I can't accelerate and it gets stuck in first gear RPM starts going up if I try to accelerate than I'll have to turn engine off which is inconvenient when your in traffic than restart it and it'll be normal but it happens every other day. Now the car is stuck on a gear and won't change gears completely parked it over night and still doesn't change gears when I start car and try to put it in drive it makes a hard jolt and doesn't accelerate past 30 mph. Been happening for 2 years now...

- Clovis, CA, USA

Vehicle becomes stuck in gear while driving down the road. Will not shift, sometimes you don't have enough power to move quickly. For example vehicle was stuck in 6th gear after leaving the highway. I could not accelerate to move the car. I had to shut the car off to reset the computer to get the car out of 6th gear. This has happened at least 10 times over the past 3 month period. Many other owners of this car have experienced the same transmission failure and that is very dangerous because the car lose power when it is stuck in a gear. The only way to fix the problem is to shut off the car and restart it. Mercedes Benz should be held responsible for this issue.

- Gardena, CA, USA

I was driving my S550 and came to a red light. I stopped at the light and when it turned green, I took my foot off the brakes and pressed the accelerator, but there was to response to pressing the accelerator. The car rpms were increasing but the vehicle was crawling at less than 5mph. This led to me pulling over and parking the vehicle and turning it off. I waited 5 minutes and then restarted it and it began to work normally. The second time this happened was while making a left turn, I pressed the gas pedal and there was no response and the car was revving but traveling less than 5 mph with oncoming traffic having to stop short to prevent crashing into me while I was making the left turn. This was again resolved with me parking the vehicle, turning it off and then restarting it. After the second time this occurred out of no where I decided its a very dangerous safety issue.

- Leesburg, FL, USA

The car stopped accelerating and then quit running. The conductor plate in the transmission failed. This is a known safety defect that Mercedes-Benz has ignored.

- Sacramento, CA, USA

The contact owns a 2007 Mercedes S550. The contact was stopped at a traffic stop and noticed smoke coming from under the hood. The contact stopped in a parking lot and noticed flames were inside the grill and behind the passenger's side headlight. The fire department was called and a fire report was filed. The vehicle was towed to an insurance yard for inspection. The fire chief advised the contact that the fire was caused by an electrical failure in the headlight unit. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 51,000.

- San Diego, CA, USA

The vehicle shuts off for a second the esp and ABS lights would come on, the steering wheel of the vehicle would get stiff, the brakes get stiff the headlights and interior lights would go off, and the command center would reboot. It seems like the vehicle is experiencing a brief electrical failure. I have been complaining of this problem since I purchased the vehicle as a certified preowned vehicle. The first time I took the vehicle to the dealership the replaced the steering control module and the problem persisted. I notified them of the reoccurring problem again and the claimed the where not able to find any faults. I set up a camera in the vehicle and videotaped the problem occurring and the finally took the vehicle for an extended test drive and replaced the central gateway which did not solve the problem. I contacted mbusa customer service to notify them of the safety concerns regarding the vehicle and that I was still experiencing the same problem and I was brushed off saying the were sorry and there is nothing they can do about the problem. This is a problem that could potentially lead to a fatal incident because it involves the vehicle cutting of for a brief second and causing many component not to function during that second and the vehicle is not intended to function in this manner. Mercedes is not doing their due diligence to investigate and correct the problem besides the basic diagnostics that do not yield an error code. I will gladly furnish the video tape which is evidence the issue occurs.

- Pikesville, MD, USA

My name is [xxx], and I am a resident of queens, NY. I recently bought a 07 Mercedes Benz S550 in July of 2009 from the certified pre-owned dealership with cpo warranty. I had it financed with Mercedes Benz financial. The car had 34,000 miles on it initially. Over the time span in which I used the car, I had to take the car many X's to the shop. In April 10 the trans. Failed, and in May 2010 the susp (active body control/ abc) system failed. These were the major items that req.'d work, besides that there were many other problems that occurred previously and as well as afterwards, that required getting service done on the car. If you take a look at the car's maintenance history, you will see a large amount of work done, and it should not be like that for such a high class and expensive car. Well I was driving the car, and had lil prob here and there. But I had no idea that was the least of my prob. On June 12, 2010, I had taken the car out for a work, and was driving in hillside ave in NY. My air conditioning in the car was running, except for the central fan, and when I tried to turn it off, it just continued to run. I was just driving along, when I smelled something burning, and decided to pull over. I turned the car off, and got out of the car and looked under the hood to make sure everything was ok. There was nothing wrong under the hood, so I got back in the car, and was about to pull out when I saw smoke coming out of the central vents on the dashboard. The car was still off, but the electrical components of the car began working by themselves. 1 by 1, the lights, the wipers, the windshield cleaning soap, the display, started to come on. I had just gotten out of the car, when it locked and the flames erupted. In a matter of minutes the car went up in flames and was completely totaled. I called the fire dept. And they put the fire out. Then I had the car towed to the dealership, and informed them of what had. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

- Astoria, NY, USA