Ford E150 vs Mercedes Benz GL450

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 E150	Mercedes Benz GL450
Complaints on file	113	281
Model years covered	1976–2006	2010–2017
Worst model year	—	2011
Best model year	—	2014
Crashes reported	2	14
Fires reported	26	10
Injuries reported	3	9
Deaths reported	1	0
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	28.3%	11.7%

Ford E150 by year

3 2 3 1 3 3 12 20 15 35 15 1

76 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 06

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

What breaks

Electrical System 36 31.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 21 18.6%

Tires 14 12.4%

Engine & Cooling 10 8.8%

Steering 6 5.3%

Brakes 5 4.4%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 5 4.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 3 2.7%

Mercedes Benz GL450 by year

48 64 51 51 27 24 15 1

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

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

What breaks

Airbags 78 27.8%

Brakes 31 11.0%

Suspension 31 11.0%

Engine & Cooling 27 9.6%

Electrical System 24 8.5%

Other & Unspecified 20 7.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 15 5.3%

Seats 13 4.6%