AutoUtility currently tracks 9 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2015 Mercedes-Benz CLS. Brakes & Traction Control issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 3 complaints (33.3% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 1 cites a fire.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 9 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Brakes & Traction Control (3 reports • 33.3% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Electrical System (3), Steering System (2)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • Fire-Citing Complaints: 1 filings
  • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 0 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
9
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
1
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
0
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2015 Mercedes-Benz CLS

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

#1 Problem Area 33.3% of complaints

Brakes & Traction Control

3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#2 Problem Area 33.3% of complaints

Electrical System

3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#3 Problem Area 22.2% of complaints

Steering System

2 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 11.1% of complaints

Engine & Cooling

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
🔥 1 fire report
#5 Problem Area 11.1% of complaints

Powertrain & Transmission

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 2015 Mercedes-Benz CLS

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

Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11504181
Fire Cited Filed: 01/28/2023

"2015 mercedes benz CLS 400 - Engine caught fire while in a parking lot approximately 10 minutes after i parked it and went inside department store. The vehicle had no open recalls"

Incident Date: 01/20/2023 • Raw NHTSA Component: ENGINE
Powertrain & Transmission NHTSA ODI ID: #11475315
Filed: 07/22/2022

"while going on freeway at 70 mph car came up with code service required do not shift see dealer and lost power had to pull off lane onto shoulder luckily was able to, could not get car to shift or go anywhere could not contact their roadside assistance, this is the third time it has done it too me,..."

Incident Date: 06/14/2022 • Raw NHTSA Component: POWER TRAIN
Steering System NHTSA ODI ID: #11457710
Filed: 03/21/2022

"The steering wheel power adjustment function stopped working. The steering wheel went to the topmost position and got stuck there. It still telescopes in and out, but the up and down function stopped working, and it's stuck at the highest position and won't move down. The car has 52K miles and was..."

Incident Date: 03/15/2022 • Raw NHTSA Component: STEERING
Brakes & Traction Control NHTSA ODI ID: #11319021
Filed: 03/23/2020

"A FEW TIMES A MONTH, THE EMERGENCY BRAKE LIGHT COMES ON AND THE CAR'S ENGINE AND VOLUME START TO DECREASE. THE TEMPORARY FIX, IS TO RELEASE THE EMERGENCY BRAKE."

Incident Date: 11/01/2019 • Raw NHTSA Component: SERVICE BRAKES
Seats & Interior NHTSA ODI ID: #11318825
Filed: 03/20/2020

"THE DRIVER'S SEAT WITH NOT MOVE FORWARD OR BACKWARDS"

Incident Date: 01/30/2020 • Raw NHTSA Component: SEATS
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 CLS

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2023)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Mercedes-Benz CLS Current Page 9 0 0 Current
2016 Mercedes-Benz CLS 0 0 0 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Mercedes-Benz CLS 2 0 1 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Mercedes-Benz CLS 0 0 0 View 2018 Problems →
2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS 20 0 12 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Mercedes-Benz CLS 6 0 5 View 2020 Problems →
2021 Mercedes-Benz CLS 1 0 8 View 2021 Problems →
2022 Mercedes-Benz CLS 3 1 6 View 2022 Problems →
2023 Mercedes-Benz CLS 3 0 3 View 2023 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 2015 Mercedes-Benz CLS

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 9 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Electrical System NHTSA category: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING,ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC) 1 0 0 0 0
Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE 1 0 1 0 0
Powertrain NHTSA category: POWER TRAIN 1 0 0 0 0
Seats & Restraints NHTSA category: SEATS 1 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
Steering NHTSA category: STEERING 1 0 0 0 0
STEERING,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC) 1 0 0 0 0
Wheels & Hubs NHTSA category: WHEELS 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 (9). 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.