The poorly designed wiring harness caught fire due to manufactures defect of biodegradable shielding... it is the harness from the E.C.M. to the engine... if the car was traveling at a higher rate of speed during this failure it could have caused death or serious injury to either the driver/passenger or others on the road... I have owned older M.B. and never seen this kind of wiring in my 10+ years of driving and repairing these kind of cars... this issue was reported to mbusa and they tried to say it is due to non maintenance through M.B..... this part should have lasted longer than the life of the car and it has nothing to do with routine maintenance...what did I miss " how do you do maintenance on a wire ? how"... this issue was found to happen off the line and they produced this crap...recall/repair thank you please fix or recall this there are others who trusted their family's to this company and some are still unaware of this issue and are in danger...

- Pensacola, FL, USA

I own a 1995 Mercedes Benz C280. This vehicle year and model has a possible critical engine wiring harness problem where the insulation on the harness disintegrates very quickly. This disintegration can cause the car to stall and catch fire while driving. There are of course other related severe problems that can occur since the wiring harness is critical to the operation of the vehicle. A few of the other critical components affected are ignition, fuel injection, cooling, timing, mixtures and various other systems/sensors of the car. After speaking to the manufacturer (mb-usa in NY), local dealers, owners and reading various websites, I believe that Mercedes Benz is aware of this problem but will not issue a voluntary recall. The only available repair I am aware of is to replace the entire engine wiring harness. Since the disintegration can occur due to the normal operational engine heat irregardless of mileage, it is my understanding that this can happen at any time. It is highly likely that a affected car with higher miles is much more susceptible to the failing of the wiring harness. This naturally also leaves drivers and passengers of older affected cars much more susceptible to the dangerous and fatal effects of a engine wiring harness failure. I ask that NHTSA investigate this further and issue a recall on behalf of all of the owners. I know that my car falls in the category where the harness is possibly bad, and you are welcome to contact me to see the condition of the my car's engine wiring harness. I hope at the least you can seek a resolution for me from the manufacturer in remedying a known issue in the model I own.

- Alexandria, VA, USA

Engine power failure while driving in traffic.

- Silver Spring, MD, USA

The car frequently has very erratic idle to the engine. It dies while warming up and dies while driving on the road regardless local or freeway. Today, (again!!!) while I was driving on the freeway, the engine lost its power and almost got kill over other cars. I was told by mechanics that I need to replace the engine wiring harness in my 1995 Mercedes C220 with 107K mi due to faulty manufacture wire insulation which cracks and opens up during hot engine heat. It also causes the cylinder misfired disable the gauges on the dashboard (caused frequent bulbs burnt). I never heard or experienced the problem with other vehicles that I drove in my life. When I looked into the matter on the web, sure enough it's a common problem for 1994 and 1995 Mercedes C220. I am very angry and surprised that it has never been recalled by Mercedes usa. I am also surprised that fact that no one came forward to form a class-action law suit against the company. This is purely a moral issue that hurts hundreds and thousands own and driving the defective car on the road everyday. Now I know that real reason behind offering 24/7 free road side assistance to its owners. Simply they are not sure what they put on their production line.

- Richmond, CA, USA

-car periodically has very erratic idle -last time car was on highway, when passing another vehicle, car engine lost power and I had to struggle to get car back home -now am afraid to drive car.

- Marquette, MI, USA

While driving at an undetermined speed vehicle stalled, causing the consumer to pull off the road. The consumer took vehicle to a mechanic.

- Houston, TX, USA

The speedometer and the outside temperature indicator light began malfunctioning, the speedometer gets stuck at 0 but functions only when the car reaches 40 mph or sometimes it doesn't function at all. Nlm

- Charlotte, NC, USA