The taillights in my 2012 c300 was starting to go out intermittently. At first the notification came on for the brake light but the brake light kept working. Afterwards the rest of the taillights and the sidemarker light went out as well. I went to go take a look and the grounding wire was oxidated and corroded. A known issue in which there was a recall made for the 2008-2011 version of the w204 but this did not apply to the 2012 w204. As of last week my entire rear drivers side light is out which is a safety hazard especially at night. The hazard lights dont work in case of an emergency on one side, the brake lights are out to notify the driver behind me take I need to stop which can lead to a rear end collision, as well as the left turn signal not working leading to drivers not knowing that I will be turning left or needing to merge left as needed. All of this is a known safety hazard to Mercedes but no recall has been submitted yet.
2012 Mercedes Benz C Class
Routine
Owners filed 1 complaints about this vehicle with federal regulators, most often about the electrical system. No safety recall has been issued.
What fails
| Component | Reports | Crashes | Fires | Injuries | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical System | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
What owners reported
Newest filingsElectrical System
Filed Nov 3, 2025CA
1 of 1 complaints, reproduced as filed.
Across model years
Worst on record: 1995| Year | Complaints | Recalls | Fires | Deaths | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 — this page | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2008 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Routine |
| 2006 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2005 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2004 | 15 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Routine |
| 2003 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2002 | 31 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Routine |
| 2001 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2000 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 1999 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 1998 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 1997 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Routine |
| 1996 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 1995 | 49 | 0 | 2 | 1 | Fatalities reported |
| 1994 | 15 | 0 | 5 | 0 | Routine |
| 1991 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
Reading this record
No unusual pattern of severe incidents in the complaint record.
Complaint counts track how many cars were sold and how long they have been on the road as much as they track quality. A common model from 2013 has had a decade to accumulate reports; a rare one from last year has not. The signal worth weighing is in the severity columns, in whether the same component keeps appearing, and in whether the manufacturer eventually opened a recall for it.
Most recent recall on file: none. Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.