Chevrolet C20 vs Mercedes Benz C Class

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	Chevrolet C20	Mercedes Benz C Class
Complaints on file	100	249
Model years covered	1970–1997	1991–2006
Worst model year	1995	1995
Best model year	1993	2000
Crashes reported	14	8
Fires reported	7	16
Injuries reported	7	10
Deaths reported	0	1
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	28%	14.1%

Chevrolet C20 by year

1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 6 2 3 4 2 6 7 2 25 13 15 2

70 71 72 74 78 80 81 82 83 84 85 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 97

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

What breaks

Brakes 22 22.0%

Seat Belts 13 13.0%

Tires 9 9.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 8 8.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 7 7.0%

Engine & Cooling 6 6.0%

Electrical System 6 6.0%

Body & Structure 5 5.0%

Mercedes Benz C Class by year

1 19 64 10 5 7 7 13 25 46 12 20 8 12

91 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06

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

What breaks

Electrical System 95 38.2%

Engine & Cooling 26 10.4%

Fuel & Propulsion 16 6.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 15 6.0%

Brakes 11 4.4%

Suspension 11 4.4%

Seats 10 4.0%

Airbags 9 3.6%