2020 MERCEDES-BENZ C 300 — Complaint #1964549
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:TRUNK LID:LATCH filed February 5, 2024
NHTSA complaint #1964549 (ODI reference 11569947) concerns a 2020 MERCEDES-BENZ C 300 and was filed on February 5, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 3, 2024. The report was geocoded to Virginia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as latches/locks/linkages:trunk lid:latch, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same MERCEDES-BENZ C 300 cohort independently describe similar latches/locks/linkages:trunk lid:latch failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2020 MERCEDES-BENZ C 300 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The issue is that the trunk lid closes abruptly and unintentionally. On Saturday, February 3, 2024, as I was putting a shopping bag in the trunk of my car, the trunk lid closed abruptly without my pressing the close button and hit my forehead. The impact was such that my eyeglasses flew off my face and hit the ground. The pain was severe and two days later, I still have pain. While there was no tear to the skin, there's a bump on my forehead and is still painful. The head injuries generally do not show adverse symptoms until months after the incident. I called the Mercedes Benz corporation and after they checked the car VIN, said there had not been any recall for this specific issue. However, searching the internet, there are reports and complaints about this exact defect.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1964549 |
| ODI Number | 11569947 |
| Date Filed | February 5, 2024 |
| Failure Date | February 3, 2024 |
| VIN | WDDWF8EB6LR |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.