While I was driving the car, with the seat belt fastened, the seat belt suddenly popped out. This was a scary experience! Repeated attempts to fasten the seat belt again did not work. On closer inspection, it appears that something inside the fastening system was probably broken, and the seat belt wasn't getting fastened in there. I immediately took the car to the dealer (Mercedes Benz of El Dorado Hills). After inspecting it, they were able to reproduce the issue (seat belt not getting fastened at all) and advised replacing the seatbelt system on the car. Unfortunately, they did not have the part in stock, so they advised that they would order the part and charge me $800 for this. I can't believe that a fundamental car safety system like this would fail like this. Imagine if there was a car accident and the seat belt just popped out of the fastener, not doing the job it was designed for? Thank you for investigating this issue. It could indeed save a lot of lives, if this is a widespread issue, necessitating a recall campaign from Mercedes.
NHTSA ODI 11496088