Model years Mercedes-Benz C-Class
2011 Mercedes-Benz C-Class
This year drew an ordinary 516 complaints for a Mercedes-Benz C-Class — the model's median is 254. What they were about is the unusual part: 37.8% of them mention takata, against 12% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 516 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 254 |
| Involving a crash | 15 |
| Involving a fire | 8 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- takata — 37.8% of this year's complaints, against 12% across the model's other years (3.1×).
- subframe — 19.8% of this year's complaints, against 5.7% across the model's other years (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: subframe, rear subframe, rusted, rust.
- airbags — 8.5% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the model's other years (3.1×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
The control arm is currently freely hanging. The reverse subframe rusted out where the control arm connects to it causing severe swaying when braking.
The rear subframe rusted out at 115k miles and it completely cracked. No other sign of rust on the vehicle. Kept in the garage. Definite safety issue.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2011 Mercedes-Benz C-Class? What happened to yours?
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