Ford Club Wagon vs Mercedes Benz E500

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	Ford Club Wagon	Mercedes Benz E500
Complaints on file	220	546
Model years covered	1985–2001	2003–2009
Worst model year	1997	2005
Best model year	1993	2006
Crashes reported	16	14
Fires reported	14	2
Injuries reported	8	13
Deaths reported	1	0
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Fuel & Propulsion
Share of complaints involving harm	17.7%	5.3%

Ford Club Wagon by year

1 2 1 1 9 5 5 18 15 24 23 24 40 35 9 6 2

85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01

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

What breaks

Brakes 59 26.8%

Engine & Cooling 29 13.2%

Tires 18 8.2%

Electrical System 17 7.7%

Fuel & Propulsion 13 5.9%

Steering 12 5.5%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 12 5.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 10 4.5%

Mercedes Benz E500 by year

143 173 168 59 1 1 1

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

Fuel & Propulsion 240 44.0%

Brakes 107 19.6%

Suspension 58 10.6%

Engine & Cooling 25 4.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 25 4.6%

Electrical System 19 3.5%

Airbags 18 3.3%

Other & Unspecified 12 2.2%