Mercedes-Benz M-Class — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 5,610 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Steering640 (11.4%)Official recall records for this system: 4, covering model years 1998–2008.
• Brakes638 (11.4%)Official recall records for this system: 2, covering model years 2006–2011.
• Engine618 (11.0%)
• Electrical system604 (10.8%)Official recall records for this system: 3, covering model years 2001–2014.
• Air bags (restraint system)514 (9.2%)Official recall records for this system: 2, covering model years 2009–2014.
• Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)388 (6.9%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 2015.

Other / uncategorized: 192 classifications (3.4%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (4,070 records, model years 1998–2015) are most frequently classified under: steering, brakes and engine.
• Safety recalls (93 records, model years 1998–2015) are most frequently classified under: seat belts, steering and equipment & accessories.
• Manufacturer communications (1,838 records, model years 1998–2015) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, engine and equipment & accessories.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 2,644reports included a mileage
• 79,695average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 1998 176 records for 1998 176
2. 1999 229 records for 1999 229
3. 2000 293 records for 2000 293
4. 2001 267 records for 2001 267
5. 2002 200 records for 2002 200
6. 2003 145 records for 2003 145
7. 2004 118 records for 2004 118
8. 2005 114 records for 2005 114
9. 2006 337 records for 2006 337
10. 2007 217 records for 2007 217
11. 2008 187 records for 2008 187
12. 2009 225 records for 2009 225
13. 2010 190 records for 2010 190
14. 2011 224 records for 2011 224
15. 2012 198 records for 2012 198
16. 2013 190 records for 2013 190
17. 2014 187 records for 2014 187
18. 2015 175 records for 2015 175

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 278mention a crash
• 266mention a fire
• 276mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 93
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 1,838
• Investigations NHTSA 37
• Owner complaints NHTSA 4,070

Explore the underlying evidence records