Total Complaints
1 filings
MERCEDES-BENZ 203 · model year
1 NHTSA complaints for this specific cohort.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 2003MERCEDES-BENZ203 carries 1 consumer safety complaint in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 0 crashes, 0 fires, 0 injuries, and 0 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
Component-level analysis is where model-year complaints become actionable: the top complaint category for the 2003 203 is power train with 1 filings. Concentration in one or two component groups is the classic signature of a systemic defect; a flat distribution usually reflects normal aging, warranty complaints, or isolated build-plant variability.
NHTSA currently has 15 investigation files overlapping the 2003 203. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should pair the counters above with the complaint-by-year trend on the parent model page — a spike in a single year often tracks to a platform refresh, a new transmission supplier, or an updated ECU calibration. Use the related-complaint feed below to read raw owner narratives before deciding whether any pattern here affects your specific use case.
Total Complaints
1 filings
Crashes Reported
0 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| POWER TRAIN | 1 |
1) MANUFACTURE DEFECT IN POWERTRAIN SYSTEM. 2) POSSIBLE FAILURE DURING DRIVING AND POSSIBLE OVERHEAT OR UNKNOWN PROBLEM DOWN THE ROAD. 3) HAVE GIVING TO DEALER MORE THEN 5 TIMES TO FIX THE VIBRATION PROBLEM. SINCE VISIT(WITH IN WARRANTY PERIOD), DEALER HAD REPLACED LEAKING RADIATOR, ENGINE MOUNT, DRIVE SHAFT, FLASH TOURQE CONVERTER AND NEW TRANSMISSION. THE PROBLEM STILL EXIST AND EVEN THE SHOP FOREMAN SAID THIS IS NOT RIGHT....
Mileage: 30,000
Data as of 2025. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.