NHTSA Complaint #11624308 — 2017 MERCEDES-BENZ METRIS

This Mercedes Metris is my wife's primary vehicle. She had the electric power steering stop working twice in six weeks. Each time the vehicle became barely controllable. Both times it happened on curvy mountain roads and she was barely able to keep control of the vehicle and is now afraid to drive it. We took it into the local Mercedes dealership twice and spent over a $1,000 the first time to remedy the problem. The second time they recommended replacing the steering rack at a cost of $5,000. We were six years into a seven year warranty with 92,000 miles on the vehicle. The dealership pulled a fast one on us and managed to work their way out of having to cover the warranty repairs. I investigated the problem, have found there are other Metris's with the same issues and am starting to believe it is not the steering rack, but more likely the steering servo motor, steering control module or the steering control software. As such we haven't been able to have it repaired as it appears the dealership has not thoroughly investigated the failure and ducked out of the warranty responsibility. Mercedes should be on top of this, as it's a serious safety hazard which endangers the lives of the occupants of our Metris and the surrounding vehicles. When the steering fails the dash turns red with warnings and it stops working within a couple of seconds. It also activates fault code P0635