Table 1 shows one common equipment related problems of the 2014 Mercedes Benz C300.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Equipment problems |
Completely rotted & rusted sub-frame. Caused braking/stability/steering issues and was completely undriveable. Cost $2300 to fix, another $1000 for car rental as well as lost time at work. There have also been many reports of this problem with other drivers of the same model of vehicle. No warning lamps or messages whatsoever, only knew the level of damage once I brought it into auto shop.
I purchased my car one year ago from a mercedes dealership - 8/31/2021. I brought it in for service at the same dealership a week ago and they told me the rear subframe rusted from the inside out and it failed inspection. The parts are $5,100 and not available until some time in q1 2023. There is no way a car rusts from the inside out in one year. I have another vehicle in the same driveway, same everything and there is no rust anywhere. We have had all of our cars at least 10 years. This was a "new" car for us. Mbusa said they could do nothing because I own the car and didn't get financing from them. My dealership so far is not helpful. My service guy (he has been for 10 years) says this is common?? my client (a different car manufacturer) says it is not and it is terrible. I don't know why it rusted but this is a defect in the car because we didn't flood it. It's dangerous.
Failed component: the subframe on my mercedes C300 broke on one side and was almost broken on the other. It would be available for inspection as it is sitting in the mercedes dealer bone yard waiting on the part to be shipped from germany around September 17th. It also ruined my back tires & now I have to replace them too. I understand that in the uk the mercedes dealers are fixing this problem free of charge but there seems to be no recalls! safety: I was entering the freeway on a rainy afternoon. My car was fishtailing very badly. At first I thought is was the highway itself as we had not had rain for quite some time. I tried to accelerate 4 or 5 times with the same fishtailing. I pulled off the busy freeway onto the shoulder & sat for a few minutes to collect my thoughts as I didn't know what was wrong. Then I drove very slowing to the next exit & a few more miles home. I drove very slowly a few miles the next morning to the mercedes dealership. Inspected: the mercedes dealer told me the subframe was broken and the car was not drivable! couldn't find the part in the us so ordered from germany with at least more than a month to wait. Warnings: there were absolutely no warning lights what so ever! additional: the dealership did not have any loaner cars. I went for 5 days without a car to drive. I finally purchased another vehicle as I depend on it to do my job. It is going to cost over $4,400 to fix.
This car has 63,792 miles on it and has been continuously garaged and well cared for. All maintenance has been done timely and by mercedes-benz of tysons corner (virginia) since it was purchased there on 01/08/14. All required maintenance was completed as advised and the car was covered under a 7 year 75,000 mile warranty. At the recent regularly scheduled yearly maintenance service completed on 12/28/21 we were advised that the that the "rear sub-frame is beginning to rust through and has a hole on the right rear (rr) and the recommendation was the "replacement of rear sub-frame soon" at an estimated cost of $4,242. 40. This car has never been in an accident. In speaking to the mb service representative about this issue, I was advised that this problem has happened to several C300's from the period 2009-2014 and that Mercedes Benz was not accepting any responsibility for the issue in the us but had issued recalls in other countries. He said mercedes maintains that it is a "wear and tear" issue. This car has not been abused and has been well maintained. This is not an area of the country where you would expect to see this type of corrosion unless the part was defective in some manner. In researching the problem on the internet, several people write about experiencing a failure of this part although the cars were older than ours and had more mileage on them. It appears to be a safety issue should the part rust through as it could puncture the gas tank or cause the rear wheels to buckle or cause a loss of control of the auto from the auto fishtailing. I have never seen this happen to a car before and I am 75 years old and have owned a number of automobiles over the years.
1. 5 years after the NHTSA recall number19v010, still no action by mercedes.
The inner driver door handle mechanism failed leaving me trapped in the vehicle. This is very unsafe. The car has 61k miles. This is a design flaw issue, not wear and tear.
At first the car would have a light ticking or knocking noise after a 15-20 minute run on the highway at 70 mph. Last week, Friday evening, I started smelling smoke something like plastic, enough to make you search for the source. It seem as thought the smokey smell is coming from the inside but after opening the driverside door the burning smell is coming from under the car. On yesterday, Monday, four days since I first smell of smoke, which is consistent now and looked at by a mechanic who said running over a plastic bag is the possible problem. Sounded logical until a few hours later after a 25 mile highway run at 70+mph the car was shaking and stuggling to stay on. The smokey smell was elevated and the powertrain light was on. Called the mechanic who told me to pull over, wait and restart the car. Now I'm afaid to drive the car which is scheduled for a diagnostic test today, Tuesday, may 17, 2016. Where there's smoke there's fire,.
The vehicle was parked in a driveway and the trunk was opened when the rear window shattered for no apparent reason. The window was not struck. This occurred after a 200 mile highway trip with no issues. Obviously, if this had happened on the highway it could have been a difficult situation.
Continental procontact (front) 225 45 r17 and (rear)245 40 17- on September 11, 2014 at 306 miles tire displayed bulge next to "c" of continental of front passenger side tire. The car was sitting for a week not being driven when the bulge appeared. I was not going to drive on a major highway and chance a blow out accident. Car was towed to mb freehold where they told me I went over a pothole. I didn't believe that to be the case but I was at there mercy. Tire was replaced at my expense and I was able to drive home; November 8,2014 the new replaced tire of the September 11, 2014 event( front passenger side tire) had a blow out while driving 25 miles an hour. The car was garaged for approx 2 weeks and not driven, then for 2 days driven locally to do errands, then driven on highway an hour to my destination and an hour back when in my neighborhood at 25 miles per hour the car was out of control and the replaced tire blew. The malfunction light went on- it was dark and I had no choice then to drive my house. . . . The wheel which wasn't scraped before is now scraped. . . Car doesn't accelerate but jerks and jolts when trying to pass or change lanes/dangerous on highways.