Oct 1, 20241 injury
On Friday, September 27, around 12 pm, while driving on i880S near Union City, California, something horrific happened. The sunroof of my 2021 Mercedes CLA 250, with just 49,000 miles, suddenly exploded without any warning. The sound was so loud and violent, it felt like a gunshot. I was immediately overwhelmed with fear and panic as I struggled to process what was happening. In my rearview mirror, I could see shards of glass scattering across the road behind me. When I looked up, I was horrified to see that the remaining glass was hanging in dangerous shards just above my head, barely held in place by the sunroof cover. I shudder to think what might have happened if that cover hadn’t been there—if it had fallen, I would have been covered in glass. And if there had been passengers or children in the car, the consequences could have been unimaginable. This experience left me deeply shaken and traumatized. I now have a lingering fear of sunroofs, and I no longer feel safe in my own vehicle. It’s not just the incident itself, but also the aftermath. When I brought the car to the dealer, despite still being under warranty, I was told this issue wouldn’t be covered. I was referred to MBUSA customer support, but after researching, I’ve seen numerous forums where others with Mercedes CLA and GLA models experienced the same problem and were similarly denied coverage. This is more than a manufacturing defect – it’s a significant safety hazard. This incident could have led to severe injuries, or worse. I urge the NHTSA to investigate this issue before someone gets seriously hurt or killed. This isn’t just about my car – it’s about ensuring the safety of all drivers and passengers in vehicles with sunroofs like mine.
NHTSA ODI 11617574
Mar 20, 2022SuspensionCrash
On Monday 02/14/2022, after 2-3 minutes driving towards work, at about 25-30mph speed, the front right ball joint broke on the vehicle putting me in danger of losing my life. Due to this ball joint failure, the right front wheel disassembled from the vehicle and it slid-crashed on the car parked on the right side of the street. If it would happen on the highway I would kill myself and put others in the ultimate danger of losing their lives. The car was towed to the Loeber Motors Dealer and Mercedes-Benz LLC. informed about the incident. The the complaint case number 2-25420239808 was started with Mercedes-Benz Customer Care and led by: Susan Executive Referral Manager Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (800) 367-6372 (ext. 6324) This defect should never happen and again, it could be lethal, causing many deaths if with full speed on the highway. Case was completely ignored by Mercedes-Benz LLC. Now it is 03/20/2022 and I still don't have any report on the safety of the vehicle. Mercedes-Benz Dealer Loeber Motors, called me on Friday 03/18/2022 saying "that if I won't tow out the vehicle from their property they will charge me $100 per day for storage - about $3000" - that way they simply forced me to put my case in the hands of my insurance without giving me any word on my vehicle safety. Mentioned earlier Mercedes-Benz Representative - Executive Referral Manager Susan, was refusing to answer my calls and never sent me any reports regarding my case. I consider such failure to be extremely dangerous and the case very serious. There were no earlier signs of any problem. The only thing I could add, 2 days before that happened, I was backing up into the parking spot on the street and I drove over a quite high pile of icy snow. Manufacturer completely ignored the case. Thanks
NHTSA ODI 11457479