NHTSA Complaint #11641800 — 2012 MERCEDES-BENZ E350

[XXX].The engine intake manifold on our 2012 Mercedes E350 (64,000 miles) EXPLODED with enough force to bend the hood up 2 inches. It was a damp cold morning & the engine had not been started in 12 hours. The car was not locked & the key fob was nowhere close. The fuel level was under 3/4 full. This happened when wife went to get something out of the car and when she pulled the passenger door handle to open - B O O M !!!! If this happened 30 minutes later, I would have been under that hood checking the fluid levels for a trip to San Francisco. I WOULD HAVE BEEN SERIOUSLY HURT OR KILLED!. It was towed to Mercedes-Benz of Carlsbad, Carlsbad California on [XXX] & they have not been able to identify the cause. They could replace the broken parts at the cost of $8,000 but that doesn’t fix the problem. And if it happens again & hurts or kills someone, they could be held liable. Similar intake explosions have occurred on these Mercedes engines but Mercedes is denying any knowledge even though it’s clearly a dangerous design flaw in this intake system. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)