Mercedes Recalls 47,799; SUV Airbags Could Fail in Crash
A glitch in the Mercedes-Benz Occupant Classification System (OCS) software found in 47,799 of their SUVs, has led the German luxury automaker to announce their first recall of 2017 in conjunction with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). According to U.S. authorities, faulty sensors in the SUVs OCS can cause the system to believe a child seat has been installed when it has not, which automatically disengages the passenger-side airbags. This deactivation can cause an increased risk of injury in the vehicles made by Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. Available recall documents do not show if any injuries have occurred at the time of the recall. The Mercedes-Benz SUVs in question were manufactured between April 2014 and May 2016 (model years 2016 & 2017). Several different iterations of the GL, GLE, and GLS SUVs are affected, but most notably this is the seventh recall of the 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE. The other six were all smaller in scale, but in one nearly 6,000 GLE 450 SUVs were recalled because of a software glitch that allegedly could cause the engine to turn off while the vehicle was being driven.
Mercedes Benz Recalls
In 2016 Mercedes was forced to recall nearly one million of their vehicles because each one was equipped with a dangerous Takata airbag inflator, which could kill the occupants that the life saving devices were meant to protect. Mercedes-Benz USA agreed to pay their dealers $325 to $1,775 per recalled vehicle (per month) until they are fixed. The company also announced that consumers who currently own one of their recalled 2013 or 2014 vehicles with a Takata airbag can receive $2,000 towards a new Mercedes-Benz (model years 2012 and earlier may still be eligible for up to $1,000). Owners of a recently recalled Mercedes-Benz SUV will be contacted directly by the company later this month, but consumers who may have purchased their recalled SUV used will need to contact the automaker directly. The company told authorities that the SUVs will be fixed by updating the sensor’s software and in the interim a warning message will appear on the dashboard informing the driver that the passenger-side airbags are not working. To see if your Mercedes-Benz SUV has been recalled see: https://consumerwatch.com/vehicle-recall-checker-by-vin-check-vehicle-recalls/ To contact Mercedes-Benz call: (800) 367-6372