Total Complaints
1 filings
MERCEDES-BENZ GL500 · model year
1 NHTSA complaints. A VIN lookup is required to determine whether a specific vehicle has an unrepaired recall.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 2012MERCEDES-BENZGL500 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.
The most frequently selected component label in reports for the 2012 GL500 is service brakes, hydraulic with 1 filings. Complaint categories reflect owner reports and intake categorization; they do not establish a defect pattern or cause.
NHTSA currently has 15 investigation files overlapping the 2012 GL500. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should read the complaint-by-year trend as report volume, not a causal diagnosis. Use the related-complaint feed and the official recall lookup when researching a specific vehicle.
Total Complaints
1 filings
Crashes Reported
0 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC | 1 |
HELLO, I WOULD LIKE TO NOTIFY A DEFECT ON A VEHICLE MERCEDES GL 500 MODEL SERIES X166 MADE IN 2012 IN U.S. PLANT BY MERCEDES COMPANY IN SEATTLE. WHILE DRIVING THERE WAS A FAULT IN THE BRAKING SYSTEM WITHOUT ANY WARNING LIGHTS. DURING THE BRAKING THE BRAKE WAS PUSHED TO THE FLOOR, BUT THE VEHICLE WAS NOT STOPPING. IN THE CASE IF THE VEHICLE WAS DRIVEN BY AN INEXPERIENCED DRIVER, IT IS MORE THAN CERTAIN THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN AN ACCIDENT. THE VEHICLE IS CURRENTLY LOCATED AT AN AUTHORIZED MERCEDES SERVICE IN TRENCIN (SLOVAKIA) AND HEADQUARTERS COMPANY DOES NOT APPEAR INTERESTED IN RESOLVING THIS SERIOUS SECURITY DEFECT. THEREFORE, THE VEHICLE WAS MANUFACTURED IN AMERICA AND MOSTLY IS SOLD IN THE U.S. MARKET; I GIVE THIS FACT TO YOUR ATTENTION WITH THE RECOMMENDATION TO INVESTIGATE THE TECHNICAL CONDITION OF THESE VEHICLES.
Data vintage: August 2026. 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.
Every figure on PlainCars is rendered directly from NHTSA complaint and safety data, no number is typed in by an editor. This year-specific record is rendered from NHTSA ODI, recall, and NCAP rows for the 2012 MERCEDES-BENZ GL500; no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.