Seat belts
Filed Jul 27, 2026
If the driver seat belt is pulled too quickly from the retractor mechanism, the seat belt can not be retracted and then pulled across the drivers lap UNLESS the car is stopped and the driver door is opened. Example. I pull up to a toll booth. I release the seat belt from my lap to access my wallet. I pay the toll and start to drive away as I then try to reattach the seat belt. I cannot get it to pull across my lap UNLESS I stop the car and open the door. This resets the belt mechanism. This is unacceptable and a safety issue. Mercedes has been notified of this design flaw and refuses to address the issue. The driver should be able to reattach the seat belt without stopping and opening the car door. Driver safety is of paramount importance.
- NHTSA ID
- 11753052
- Incident
- Jan 2, 2026
Driver assistance
Filed Jul 4, 2026
In most circumstances the adaptive cruise control (ADC) works well. There is one case where it does not, however. When ADC is active and the vehicle immediately in front shows, perhaps to make a turn, the ADC-equipped vehicle slows appropriately. The problem: Once the front vehicle is *well clear* of the driving lane, often operating 90 degrees to the marked lane on a perpendicular roadway, the ADC-equipped vehicle delays in sensing this and dos not resume the set speed. The effect is for traffic behind the ADC-equipped vehicle to become exceedingly annoyed and a chain-reaction of braking results. Drivers operating behind the Mercedes-Benz have a reasonable expectation that when the traffic in front of the ADC-equipped vehicle is clear the latter will accelerate. This expectation is not met in practice -- ever. The result is near-miss rear end collisions This exact same issues was also observed on a 2025 Mercedes GLE450.
- NHTSA ID
- 11748273
- Incident
- Jul 4, 2026
Driver assistanceElectricalEngine
Filed Jun 13, 2026
On May 26, 2026 I was driving our new Mercedes 2026 GLE350 to [XXX]. The car had 737 miles on it, when it died in traffic on [XXX]. The car was purchased new on April 11, 2026 from the Mercedes dealer in Monterey, CA. When the car died in traffic, an emergency message appeared on the screen "Automatic brake assist not working, Stop the car immediately, Do Not Drive". I was barely able to cross two lanes of traffic in order to get to the right shoulder of the very busy freeway. The dealer in Monterey was contacted and said it sounded like an electrical issue. The car was towed to the nearest Mercedes dealer in Stevens Creek, San Jose Ca. (phone [XXX]) The service advisor at Stevens Creek is named Erica Flores. After 4 days at that dealership, she advised us that they "were unable" to duplicate the problem and that a software fix would have to be addressed by the main shop in Germany. No one knows when the software will be available. We were able to get copies of the repair order, Invoice number XXX. The car was returned to us and we drove back home to Pacific Grove, CA without any other issues. On XXX my wife was once again traveling to [XXX]. At approximately 1:15 pm the car did the exact same thing. Losing power while she was traveling at 65 miles per hour on the busy [XXX]. Again, the computer screen displayed several messages including the braking system, the cooling system and instructed her to turn the car off immediately and not to drive. The car now has approximately 1150 miles on it. We notified the dealer in Monterey Ca, and also the dealer in San Jose (Stevens Creek). My wife spoke again with Erica Flores at the Stevens Creek Mercedes dealer. Erica told my wife she could not help her and that all they could offer is a storage facility for us, with a cost of approximately 160 dollars per day. These issues represent a major safety concern which needs to be addressed by M.B. USA. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
- NHTSA ID
- 11743941
- Incident
- Jun 13, 2026