2016 Mercedes-Benz GLC
This year drew an ordinary 139 complaints for a Mercedes-Benz GLC — the model's median is 121. What they were about is the unusual part: 20.1% of them mention brakes, against 3.7% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 139 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 121 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 24 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brakes — 20.1% of this year's complaints, against 3.7% across the model's other years (5.5×).
- odor — 15.1% of this year's complaints, against 4.1% across the model's other years (3.6×). Owners wrote it as: odor, abnormal, gasoline, rail.
- squeal — 6.5% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (32.4×). Owners wrote it as: squeal, brakes squeal.
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
While driving at an undisclosed speed, there was an abnormal gasoline odor inside the vehicle. The gasoline odor was also outside the vehicle. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer but was not diagnosed or repaired. The dealer…
PURCHASED THE CAR NEW FROM DEALER IN MARCH 2016. BRAKES SQUEAL IN REVERSE WHEN THERE'S COLD WEATHER. THE DEALER HAS REPLACED BREAK PADS AND ROTORS 3 TIMES BUT STILL THE SAME ISSUE; I'VE BROUGHT IT IN FOR THE SAME PROBLEM OVER 4 TIMES. THE LATEST 'FIX' WAS JANU…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Mercedes-Benz GLC 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 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLC? What happened to yours?
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