AutoUtility currently tracks 8 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2021 Mercedes-Benz CLA. Driver Assistance & Safety Tech issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 3 complaints (37.5% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 1 filing cites a crash, 1 reports one or more injuries. The 2021 Mercedes-Benz CLA belongs to the 2nd Generation (C118) platform.

Key Problem Findings
  • • Total NHTSA Complaints: 8 reports
  • • #1 Reported Problem Area: Driver Assistance & Safety Tech (3 reports • 37.5% of submitted complaints)
  • • Secondary Problem Areas: Exterior Lighting (1), Powertrain & Transmission (1)
  • • Crash-Citing Complaints: 1 filings
  • • Fire-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 1 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Reporting Methodology: Statistics describe unverified consumer submissions voluntarily filed with NHTSA. Complaint volume is not normalized for vehicle sales volume or miles driven. Multiple components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission.
Total Complaints
8
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
1
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
1
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2021 Mercedes-Benz CLA

Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records

#1 Problem Area 37.5% of complaints

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech

3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 2 official safety recall campaigns for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#2 Problem Area 12.5% of complaints

Exterior Lighting

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#3 Problem Area 12.5% of complaints

Powertrain & Transmission

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 12.5% of complaints

Engine & Cooling

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#5 Problem Area 12.5% of complaints

Fuel & Propulsion System

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
Domain Share Note: Share percentage represents the proportion of unique complaint filings referencing each vehicle system. Because single complaints may cite multiple systems (such as engine and electrical simultaneously), domain percentages represent individual category incidence and may sum to over 100%.

Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2021 Mercedes-Benz CLA

Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech NHTSA ODI ID: #11759720
Filed: 08/26/2026

"My 2021 CLA 250 that I reached purchased as a used vehicle in the last three months and now is saying SOS unresponsive so in my vehicle where to get a motor vehicle accident, it will not be alerting any emergency personnel authorities and I think it’s really sad the whole fact that Mercedes-Benz..."

Incident Date: 07/22/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Other / Miscellaneous NHTSA ODI ID: #11702433
Filed: 12/02/2025

"The sunroof exploded on my CLA without external interference. The glass shattered everywhere causing a loud explosion and Major safety issue."

Incident Date: 12/01/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Exterior Lighting NHTSA ODI ID: #11649297
Filed: 03/19/2025

"the seal around my driver side rear light is not sealed correctly there is water precipitation in my lamp"

Incident Date: 03/18/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Other / Miscellaneous NHTSA ODI ID: #11617574
1 Injury Entry Filed: 10/01/2024

"On Friday, September 27, around 12 pm, while driving on i880S near Union City, California, something horrific happened. The sunroof of my 2021 Mercedes CLA 250, with just 49,000 miles, suddenly exploded without any warning. The sound was so loud and violent, it felt like a gunshot. I was..."

Incident Date: 09/27/2024 • Raw NHTSA Component: UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Driver Assistance & Safety Tech NHTSA ODI ID: #11594916
Filed: 06/17/2024

"Our car has lost power to accelerate on 4 occasions on the highway. The first instance was in October of 2023, the second instance was in November of 2024 (and was brought immediately to the dealership and they said the fix wasn't available yet), the third instance was in March of 2024 and the most..."

Incident Date: 10/01/2023 • Raw NHTSA Component: POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ENGINE
Consumer Narrative Notice: Excerpts are sanitized text descriptions submitted by vehicle owners to the federal ODI database. They reflect the reporting consumer's observations at the time of filing and have not been independently confirmed by vehicle manufacturers or government investigators.

Complaint History for Mercedes-Benz CLA

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2026)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Mercedes-Benz CLA 158 9 7 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Mercedes-Benz CLA 66 5 9 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Mercedes-Benz CLA 27 2 10 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Mercedes-Benz CLA 46 2 10 View 2018 Problems →
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLA 51 4 6 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA 24 1 13 View 2020 Problems →
2021 Mercedes-Benz CLA Current Page 8 1 6 Current
2022 Mercedes-Benz CLA 4 1 0 View 2022 Problems →
2023 Mercedes-Benz CLA 6 2 1 View 2023 Problems →
2024 Mercedes-Benz CLA 0 0 0 View 2024 Problems →
2025 Mercedes-Benz CLA 1 0 0 View 2025 Problems →
2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 0 0 0 View 2026 Problems →
Comparative Disclaimer: Complaint totals are unadjusted historical counts and are not normalized for vehicles sold, active fleet size, or total road mileage. Newer model years naturally have had less calendar exposure time to accumulate owner filings.

Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2021 Mercedes-Benz CLA

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 6 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER 3 0 0 1 0
EXTERIOR LIGHTING 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
Suspension NHTSA category: SUSPENSION 1 1 0 0 0
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
Data Attribution & Reporting Methodology: Complaints are unverified voluntary submissions to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). Because multiple vehicle components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission, component-level rollups may sum to more than the unique complaint count (8). Injury and fatality entries in the detailed table reflect raw values entered by reporting consumers across individual submissions; they are not deduplicated casualty statistics and may include duplicate or unverified entries. Complaint volume is not normalized for sales volume or vehicle mileage and does not represent an audited component failure rate.

Related Official Reports for 2021 Mercedes-Benz CLA

Cross-reference safety recalls, crash test safety ratings, and EPA fuel economy for this model year

Official US Government Data Provenance

The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.

Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.