Car E-320 Mercedes Benz 2003 with 53404 miles while my wife was driving this car, the vehicle panel indicated a total brake failure and she had no breaking response from the car at all. She was traveling at around 40 mph but says she had no one in front of her so she let the car coast to a stop, she had no breaking power at all. At this time she called me and I had her take photos of the car panel lights and then I contacted Mercedes Benz. We know that there has been a recall for this issue on these vehicles, based on information that I found filed with NHTSA. The biggest problem is that the exact same incident happened to her on this same vehicle back in January of 2009. At the time of that incident she was at a parking lot and driving very slowly. We contacted Mercedes Benz and were told to bring the car in. Mb said that the car required an sbc control unit upgrade (software) and the job was done at no cost to us. So here we are, 16 months and about 9,000 miles later with the same issue again, both times this problem could have resulted in a serious accident and we are happy that this was not the case. Although mb has already made an appointment for us and I was told that the problem will be resolved at mb's cost, this time they indicated to me they will be replacing some part (?) and not just doing an electronic update. Of course my wife is now very scared to drive this car, even if they do the repairs and I do not blame her. We will see. In doing internet research I found many other complains that are very similar, where there is a total electronic failure of the break system (no stopping power at all, no dual-system back-up). In other complaints if the car is turned off and then re-started the problem goes away. This is exactly what happened to my wife's car. This problem is serious enough that should be properly addressed and research so as to avoid accidents.

- Marietta, GA, USA