AutoUtility currently tracks 6 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2023 Mercedes-Benz CLA. Air Bags & Restraints issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 1 complaint (16.7% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 2 filings cite a crash, 1 reports one or more injuries. The 2023 Mercedes-Benz CLA belongs to the 2nd Generation (C118) platform.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 6 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Air Bags & Restraints (1 reports • 16.7% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Steering System (1), Engine & Cooling (1)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 2 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
6
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
2
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 2023 Mercedes-Benz CLA

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

#1 Problem Area 16.7% of complaints

Air Bags & Restraints

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report 🩹 2 injury report entries
#2 Problem Area 16.7% of complaints

Steering System

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report
#3 Problem Area 16.7% of complaints

Engine & Cooling

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 16.7% of complaints

Electrical 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 2023 Mercedes-Benz CLA

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

Air Bags & Restraints NHTSA ODI ID: #11707802
Crash Cited 2 Injury Entries Filed: 12/30/2025

"I slid on snow during a storm and hit head on to an oncoming car and my car has been deemed a total loss. During the crash not a single airbag at all deployed. I hit the windshield and the dash, at least one should have gone off, but none of them deployed in the car"

Incident Date: 12/14/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: AIR BAGS
Steering System NHTSA ODI ID: #11706783
Crash Cited Filed: 12/23/2025

"While executing a right turn, the steering wheel became locked. The driver attempted to apply the brakes, but they were unresponsive. Consequently, the vehicle collided with the divider."

Incident Date: 12/17/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: STEERING
Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11691317
Filed: 10/03/2025

"During regular use my 2023, Mercedes Cla 250, had a fault in the instrument display in which the display shut off completely. Only the media display remained on, however the media display is completely useless in this scenario, only the instrument display can show the speed in which the vehicle is..."

Incident Date: 10/03/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Other / Miscellaneous NHTSA ODI ID: #11666113
Filed: 06/10/2025

"I own a 2023 Mercedes CLA250 VIN: [XXX]. This morning I was driving 50 mph on a road with no traffic, no car in front or behind me, no trees or overhead wires and my sunroof imploded. I have the privacy screen closed which saved me from the shards of glass raining on me. I have included pictures of..."

Incident Date: 06/10/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Other / Miscellaneous NHTSA ODI ID: #11585897
Filed: 04/29/2024

"I was driving on hwy 301 in Maryland at 5am. My sunroof exploded. It was like a bomb went off hatterung glass all over my face and body"

Incident Date: 04/29/2024 • Raw NHTSA Component: UNKNOWN OR OTHER
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 8 1 6 View 2021 Problems →
2022 Mercedes-Benz CLA 4 1 0 View 2022 Problems →
2023 Mercedes-Benz CLA Current Page 6 2 1 Current
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 2023 Mercedes-Benz CLA

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 4 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 0 0
Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS 1 1 0 2 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
Steering NHTSA category: STEERING 1 1 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 (6). 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.
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.