2020 Mercedes-Benz GLE Reliability Report

Harsh shifting and stalling lead these reports. Owners describe clunks when coming to a stop, jolts into first gear, lunging when shifting into gear, and stalls at lights and on the highway. Some get a "do not continue to drive" warning and the car will not move. Dealers have traced this to a transmission solenoid or valve body fault, with one valve body failure at 44,000 miles. Reprogramming and even a replacement transmission do not always fix it, and dealers often cannot duplicate the problem.

A passenger airbag warning shows up at every start. Dealers trace it to a failed weight sensor in the passenger seat. Cars go back to owners with the passenger airbag disabled while the part is on back order with no arrival date, sometimes for weeks. One crash report describes a rear-end collision at 40 to 50 mph in which the airbags did not deploy and automatic braking did not step in, with 2 people injured.

Rear shock absorbers leak and fail early. The usual signs are rattles or noises over bumps at roughly 30,000 to 33,000 miles. Other reports describe the body bouncing and swaying over potholes and in turns, with no fix after several dealer visits. With E-Active Body Control in Curve mode, the safety systems can step in mid-corner for no clear reason and pull the SUV off its line. That is a loss-of-control risk.

Reports describe brakes that fail to stop the car and a driver assist system that slams on the brakes for no reason. In the crash report, the brake failure came after a camera fault warning and false alerts about nearby cars. That car then sat at the dealer for over a month with no answers. In the phantom braking cases, the stop-and-go assist brakes hard on the highway, and dealers can reproduce it but have no fix. Both patterns raise the risk of a rear-end collision.

The original Cooper 275/50R20 tires wear out or chunk far too early. One report has tread falling off the front tires at 5,900 miles and chunking again after replacement. Another has tires worn nearly bald by 16,000 miles despite a 50,000-mile rating. Warranty claims with Cooper move slowly, so some owners buy replacements themselves. One complaint concerns a tire inflation alert.

The rearview camera shows a glitchy, blank or intermittent image. Sometimes the main screen fails with it, which also takes out climate, navigation and media controls. In both reports, the fault came back after a dealer repair. One car stayed at a dealer unrepaired at about 50,000 miles. The main safety risk is backing up and parking without a working camera.

A check engine light signals a fuel delivery failure, sometimes along with a battery warning and a "Do not Drive Vehicle" message. In one case, a dealer found a failed fuel pump. In another, the fuel tank and fuel delivery module were faulty, and the failure appeared while the car was idling in traffic. The reported mileages are 29,201 and 79,000. One car was repaired. The other was not yet repaired at the time of the report.