1990 MERCEDES-BENZ 420 — Complaint #562028
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about CHILD SEAT:TETHER: CONNECTOR/CLIP filed November 9, 2005
NHTSA complaint #562028 (ODI reference 10142298) concerns a 1990 MERCEDES-BENZ 420 and was filed on November 9, 2005. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 20, 2005. The report was geocoded to Oregon based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as child seat:tether: connector/clip, 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 420 cohort independently describe similar child seat:tether: connector/clip 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 1990 MERCEDES-BENZ 420 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
NO TETHER ANCHORAGES ARE PRESENT ON THIS VEHICLE AND NO TETHER ANCHORAGES HAVE EVER BEEN PRESENT ON THIS VEHICLE. THE OWNER'S MANUAL AND MBNA SERVICE BULLETINS STATE THAT THIS VEHICLE IS EQUIPPED WITH TETHER ANCHORAGES FOR USE WITH CHILD RESTRAINTS THAT HAVE A TOP TETHER STRAP. TETHER ANCHORAGES ARE NEEDED TO PROPERLY ATTACH MY FORWARD-FACING CHILD RESTRAINT. MERCEDES-BENZ-USA AND MERCEDES-BENZ OF EUGENE, OR STATE THAT THIS VEHICLE DID NOT COME EQUIPPED WITH THE TETHER ANCHORAGES. WERE/ARE TETHER ANCHORAGES REQUIRED TO BE ATTACHED TO THIS VEHICLE FOR THIS VEHICLE TO BE SOLD IN THE USA AT TIME OF SALE PER FEDERAL STANDARDS AND/OR BECAUSE THE OWNER'S MANUAL AND SERVICE BULLETINS STATE THAT THIS VEHICLE IS EQUIPPED WITH TETHER ANCHORAGES? THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT SAFETY ISSUE. *NM
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 562028 |
| ODI Number | 10142298 |
| Date Filed | November 9, 2005 |
| Failure Date | October 20, 2005 |
| VIN | WDBCA35E0LA |
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.