Mercedes Benz E320

Which Mercedes Benz E320 years should you avoid?

Going by 1,164 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Mercedes Benz E320 years to avoid are 2005, 2003, 2004 and 1999.

• 2005231 complaints, 3.7× a typical E320 year, most often about the fuel and propulsion system; and 3.4× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (4 fires, 10 crashes, 4 deaths).
• 2003214 complaints, 3.4× a typical E320 year, most often about the brakes.
• 2004203 complaints, 3.2× a typical E320 year, most often about the fuel and propulsion system.
• 19992.2× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (6 fires, 12 crashes).

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →