On December 14, 2022 at approximately 3:45 pm in rush hour traffic in the high speed lane on i-75 in Bradenton, Fl, the 2014 Mercedes C250 I was driving lost total engine power, traveling from 80mph to 0 in seconds. I had just enough time because of the momentum of the speed I was traveling at to maneuver the car into the breakdown lane adjacent to a median construction site. Had I been traveling in the middle lane there would have been insufficient time to change lanes in heavy, fast traveling traffic and get to a breakdown lane. In other words, we could have been killed. There was no check engine light nor warning lights of any kind. The engine was quiet and there was no engine rattling noise or shuddering prior to the incident during over 7 hours of travel from Marietta, Georgia into Florida. The car had been purchased from a used car dealer in Marietta two days before and had passed the Georgia emissions test on 11/18/22. We had the car towed to a Mercedes Benz dealership 20 miles away in Sarasota. On 12/16/22 Mercedes mechanics deemed the catastrophic engine failure to be due to a broken timing chain (this was confirmed in a conversation12/21 with Mercedes Sarasota Service Manager Jim Foulkrod) and that there was no compression in the engine. Among the codes which came up during Mercedes multi-point inspection was 036562, exhaust cam signal and 34164. Mercedes-€™ estimate to fix the car was $24,222.13. We declined to move forward with engine repairs. Mercedes was threatening to charge storage fees so the car was donated to the charity, Veteran Car Donations, Heroes on the Water which towed the car on 12/20/22. The car remains with the charity awaiting title transfer information.

- Marco Island, FL, USA

The Cam Shaft and the boost pressure need to be replaced immediately. I took my car to a Mercedes Benz dealership in Long Island, NY for a regular oil change (nothing was wrong with my car when it went in for the oil change). When they gave me back my car I literally got 1 and half blocks from the dealership and my car was jerking violently and the check engine light came on and has not gone off since that day. I took the car right back to the dealership and of course they are saying they did nothing to make this happen and are refusing to cover the repairs for the Cam Shaft and boost pressure to make my car run correctly again. This is a dangerous car to drive now because due to this same problem the car has random issues accelerating and has put me in dangerous situations while driving on the highway and on the street. The interesting part is Mercedes Benz knows that this is a serious issue with this car because I was told that by the people that work at the dealership that Mercedes is covering the full repairs for what my car is going through but they are only doing it for people who's cars are under 120,000 miles. My car is at 133,000 miles and they are refusing to cover the repairs for me. My complaint number with Mercedes Benz customer service is 2-29420067413. They are not being helpful because they told me that every Mercedes dealership in the United States is independently owned besides the one in Manhattan NY. They are telling me that even though they are the manufacturer each dealership makes their own decisions. This is absolutely absurd and my car is dangerous to drive at this point. They want $5,000 and counting from me to repair my car for something that they messed up on and that they know is a known issue. Please help me get this resolved. Thank You

- Bronx, NY, USA

I was trying to merge onto a freeway from a complete stop and because this freeway has an extremely short on-ramp, you need to get up to a high speed in very little time. As such, I put my car in Sport driving mode and accelerated very hard from a complete stop. The car accelerated as normal for a few seconds (I reached approximately 40 to 50 MPH), then I felt the car lag and felt a loss of power. The car was in limp mode and I couldn-€™t accelerate even though I was pressing the gas pedal all the way to the floor. A few seconds after this occurred, I notice that the check engine light turned on. I was able to maintain a speed around 50 MPH and got off the freeway. I took my car to both the Mercedes dealership and an independent mechanic and both diagnosed a failure of the high pressure fuel pump. I also tried to see if this will happen again and after hard acceleration in regular driving mode, the exact same issues occurred. I have read that there are issues with the high pressure fuel pump with my car model and I ask that you guys please investigate thoroughly to see if a recall would be necessary. Losing power while accelerating is extremely dangerous and a huge safety hazard for all drivers on the road. I could have easily been rear ended by another driver since I couldn-€™t accelerate to a faster speed. I have not yet replaced the high pressure fuel pump but plan to do so in the next few days. Attached is the diagnostic invoice from the Mercedes dealership. As stated on the invoice, please note that my car only has 43,000 miles, which makes the high pressure fuel pump failure very surprising.

- Arcadia, CA, USA

Cabin fills up with fuel smell, visible leak under fuel tank and by the front left tire. Leak and smell occurs both in motion and stationary/idle.

- Fort Bragg, NC, USA

The contact owns a 2014 Mercedes-Benz C250. While driving, the vehicle failed to accelerate above 40-50 mph and stalled. The vehicle was able to restart and the check engine indicator illuminated. The vehicle was taken to Mercedes-Benz of valencia (23355 valencia blvd, santa clarita, ca 91355, (661) 753-5555) where it was diagnosed that the camshaft and engine sensor needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred. The manufacturer was contacted and referred the contact to the local dealer. The failure mileage was 75,000.

- Lancaster, CA, USA

In June of 2018 we had to have cam shaft work done on our car which was slightly over the manufacture warranty. This took two trips to the shop and about $10,000 in repairs because the one side failed then within a few weeks the other side failed. I have read on the web many people have had the same issue and it begins right after the warranty goes out. Now there is an issue with the timing chain which I read should have been replaced when the cam shaft work was done. All these issues with the same model and there has been no recall. Mercedes told us it is a problem with the C250 and it will probably have to be done again after another 50,000 miles. I don't understand if they are aware of this issue why they have not corrected it. It costs about $5000 each time!

- Slidell, LA, USA

The contact owns a 2014 Mercedes-Benz C250. When the contact pressed the push start button, it took approximately one minute to start the engine. The contact stated that the failure occurred for at least three months on a daily basis, but was now occurring approximately four times per day. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who determined that the timing chain and cam shaft failed. The dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 61,000.

- Lake Worth, FL, USA

The contact owned a 2014 Mercedes-Benz C250. While driving 60 mph, the vehicle caught on fire without warning. The contact stated that the failure occurred when retrieving the vehicle from the dealer and that the vehicle had been at the dealer for three months. The police department was called, but a police report was not filed. No injuries were sustained. The fire department was able to extinguish the fire. The vehicle was towed to Mercedes Benz of palm beach (4000 okeechobee blvd, West palm beach, fl 33409). The manufacturer inspected the vehicle and stated that they were not liable for the failure. The vehicle had not been repaired. The failure mileage was 50,200.

- Mirama, FL, USA

The contact owned a 2014 Mercedes-Benz C250W. While driving approximately 40 mph, the vehicle began to decelerate on its own and the check engine indicator illuminated. The failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to Mercedes-Benz of palm beach (4000 okeechobee blvd, West palm beach, fl 33409, 561-689-6363) where it was diagnosed that the fuel pump needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. While driving back home at approximately 30 mph, the driver heard a hissing sound and dark smoke gushed from underneath the hood without warning. The vehicle was pulled over to the side of the road. Flames approximately seven feet high poured out from the hood and engulfed the entire vehicle. The police and fire departments were called to the scene. The fire was extinguished by the fire department. There were no injuries and a police report was not filed. The vehicle was destroyed and towed back to the dealer. The dealer stated that the failure was not caused by the previous repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and opened an investigation. The failure mileage was approximately 50,187.

- Miramar, FL, USA

I had been driving on the freeway, got off onto a side road and when approaching a stop light while braking: My car completely died (while in drive). The motor shut off, the electrical dash system lights all went off and the hazard triangle system came on (with the symbol of an exclamation mark(!) inside the triangle). After about a minute and a half, I put it in park, and it restarted. Scary! I had a full tank of gas.

- Yuba City, CA, USA

Random engine stall involving turbo and intercooler: We purchased this 2014 C250 with roughly 8,000 miles from nearby mb dealer. We have enjoyed the car immensely, exception this very serious "defect" with the engine. Observed on three separate occasions, this problem is very serious and could lead to potential collision while passing another vehicle, because the engine "stalls" under intense acceleration randomly, leaving only one cylinder working. With this one remaining cylinder, the car can barely be operated, shaking etc., but can be maneuvered off the road if possible in traffic, shut off, and re-started without any after-affects. We took to the dealer twice, and both times the mb dealer admits there is a very real problem with, allegedly, the "intercooler, " and that "all C250 engines have this same potential problem, " and furthermore, Mercedes does not currently have a solution or fix, but is working on it. Note: It's been six months since I reported my initial problem and had it recorded (filed at the dealer). The car computer does indicate the problem exists, and records each incident. Problem: Mb does not have a solution currently. It is very dangerous to have the car under full acceleration in sport mode, and then the car suddenly without warning shuts down ("computer generated stall"). I was fortunate to be going very fast merging onto interstate traffic, then able to get off the road before I was rear-ended. This same scenario has occurred on two other occasions without any accident, and while motor was not even heavily stressed as the initial incident.

- Southport, NC, USA

The contact owns a 2014 Mercedes Benz C250. While the vehicle was parked, the contact noticed a leak coming from the radiator and the transmission. In addition, the contact noticed fuel fumes coming from the oil pan and dip stick in the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to a dealer who was unable to diagnose or repair the vehicle and stated that the vehicle functioned as intended. In addition, the mechanic was unable to find any leaks. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 20,000.

- Jackson, MS, USA

I leased my vehicle in November of 2013. The vehicle is driven to and from work and in the beginning I never had a problem. A few months ago I was driving down the freeway at 70 mph and all of a sudden the check engine light came on and the vehicle lost power. The vehile would violently shake whe trying to accelerate. I manged to continue to drive for about another 30 minutes and made it to the dealer and turned the car off but once they restarted it the car ran fine. Since then then car will randomly loose power all of a sudden it has been to the dealer 3 or 4 times and they keep it for a week and then give it back and say that they were not able to recreate the issue. I have almost been hit once so far and when I let my brother use the car he was almost hit while making a left turn because of the random power loss. I have contacted mbusa and spoke with someone named juan. I continued to call him ans take the vehicle to the dealer everytime it happened expressing my concerns abiut the car as well as safety. Juan intiallly acted as if he cared but that was shor lived as he finally called back on 10/2/15 and explained that his managers and mbusa were unable to create the issue at the dealer level so there is nothing they will do at this point... at that point I realized that there is nothing that mbusa will do for me and that I will continue to forced to drive and pay for a very unsafe vehicle.

- Spring Hill, FL, USA

Leased our Mercedes and shortly afterwards we started experiencing hesitation, lagging and even stalling of the vehicle as we tried to accelerate. Twice the vehicle has stalled as we pulled into traffic, narrowly escaping possible injury and damaging several cars. Hesitation has occurred without warning, (pressing on accelerator and the engine does not respond by evidence of no RPM increase). Again, this has occured numerous times. We have had the vehicle back to Mercedes four times, for a total of 39 days!!!! and still to this day, the vehicle still has the issue, while Mercedes claims there isn't a problem with the vehicle. They have given us every excuse in the book of why no problem exists, even after the service manager stated that the car has a 6 second delay which is unacceptable!!!!!!! two different individuals have drove the vehicle and experienced the same hesitation problem. The car in our eyes is a hazard to the streets and highways of the state of Florida. We are paying for a car that is dangerous and has the high probability of causing an accident with catastrophic results...........

- Apopka, FL, USA

I was driving four days after I leased my brand new C250 2014 Mercedes, and the car died in the middle of a busy street. The cop and I couldnt even move it to the side of the street. I am worried this will happen again. Thus I have been calling Mercedes to please replace the car with a safe one.

- Los Angeles, CA, USA