Verified government source

NHTSA complaint #11475568

This page summarizes an official U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration owner complaint. Use the verification links below to confirm the record directly with NHTSA.

Vehicle

2020 MERCEDES-BENZ GLC 350

Manufacturer

Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC

Components

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE,ENGINE

Dates

Incident: 03/08/2022
Filed: 07/24/2022

Owner complaint summary

Engine coolant after 2000 miles from topped off by dealership got low and sparked fire, and totaled my car. Warning alert was ON to say turn off engine remove key. Articles related to this: 800,000 Mercedes-Benz Owners Warned Their Cars Could Catch Fire (forbes.com) Daimler warns car owners of fire risk it lacks parts to fix | Reuters 800,000 Mercedes Vehicles Are In Risk Of Catching Fire, But They Don't Have The Parts To Fix It (topspeed.com) Auto manufacturer Daimler advised 800,000 Mercedes-Benz owners that a technical defect could cause their cars to catch fire, but said it lacked the parts to fix the defect immediately, warning owners to instead drive “particularly carefully.” When confronted with the above with Mercedes Benz my vehicle fire MB maintained that the fire is a hot surface ignition issue and denied the car had any design issue. In the article, MB's warning to owners to instead drive "particularly carefully" means to me that they do admit there are critical and chronic issues with the car that would not only produce trip interruptions but catch fire altogether. It is mandatory for Mercedes to redesign the coolant's chronic issues and make the recall so that more owners will not be faced with the problem I had -- total loss of the vehicle.

Fire reported
This is an owner complaint filed with NHTSA (ODI #11475568). It is not automatically an official recall, investigation outcome, or manufacturer admission unless the complaint text itself describes one.

Official record ID (ODI): 11475568. This page is the human-readable source link used across afterwarranty. The raw JSON link proxies NHTSA's public API for machine verification; prefer this page when reading the complaint.