Model years Mercedes-Benz C-Class
2020 Mercedes-Benz C-Class
This year drew an ordinary 92 complaints for a Mercedes-Benz C-Class — the model's median is 280. What they were about is the unusual part: 43.5% of them mention warning, against 13.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 92 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 280 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- warning — 43.5% of this year's complaints, against 13.9% across the model's other years (3.1×).
- serious — 41.3% of this year's complaints, against 15.5% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: serious, brought, appeared, despite.
- without — 19.6% of this year's complaints, against 5% across the model's other years (3.9×).
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
Automatic trunk closing mechanism caused the trunk hood to close on my head as I was putting groceries in the trunk. This has occurred several times in the past but this time it hit my head with more force. I have not brought it to a dealer and it has not been…
While driving on the turnpike without warning my steering locked and I lost control of my car.
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 2020 Mercedes-Benz C-Class? What happened to yours?
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