Cadillac Fleetwood vs Mercedes Benz ML350

Both cars' complete complaint records, side by side.

Read the totals carefully. NHTSA publishes no sales figures, so the car that sold more collects more complaints regardless of quality. The rows worth weighing are the proportions — the share of complaints that involved harm, and which part dominates.

Measure	Cadillac Fleetwood	Mercedes Benz ML350
Complaints on file	265	651
Model years covered	1972–1998	2001–2009
Worst model year	1993	2006
Best model year	1995	2005
Crashes reported	33	43
Fires reported	14	80
Injuries reported	22	35
Deaths reported	0	0
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	26%	24.3%

Cadillac Fleetwood by year

1 1 1 6 1 17 10 8 4 16 22 22 13 51 27 22 39 4

72 78 81 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 98

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Brakes 48 18.1%

Engine & Cooling 30 11.3%

Electrical System 24 9.1%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 19 7.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 17 6.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 15 5.7%

Steering 14 5.3%

Body & Structure 14 5.3%

Mercedes Benz ML350 by year

2 31 44 28 235 113 93 105

01 03 04 05 06 07 08 09

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 86 13.2%

Electrical System 86 13.2%

Steering 74 11.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 72 11.1%

Seats 62 9.5%

Airbags 61 9.4%

Brakes 47 7.2%

Lights 28 4.3%