Mercedes to recall 1,800 M-Class SUVs in UAE

About 1,800 on-road Mercedes sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in the UAE will be affected by the global recall of M-Class vehicles by Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, Emirates 24|7 can reveal.

The company is undertaking a global recall of some of its older-model M-Class SUVs for issues related to cruise control that may lead to a crash, Daimler and US federal safety regulators said earlier this week. A wide majority of the vehicles being recalled are model year 1999-2002 M-Class SUVs, but there are a small number of AMG performance vehicles also involved.

“There are approximately 1,800 cars in use that will be affected in the UAE,” a Daimler spokesperson told this website in an e-mailed response.

“As a result of isolated instances of feedback from Mercedes-Benz service partners and from the area of quality assurance in connection with the company’s worldwide product monitoring, Daimler AG has become aware that, due to a defective signal from the brake lamp switch, in isolated instances the cruise control function on models of the first generation of ML-Class from the production period August 1999 – July 2002 (ML 55 AMG up to June 2004) will not disengaged by tapping the brake pedal,” said the Daimler statement to Emirates247.com.

“This is generally accompanied by a warning lamp illumination in the instrument cluster. In such instances, the cruise control function can still be disengaged when the vehicle reaches a certain deceleration threshold or, as usual, via the cruise control lever,” it added. “The cruise control is also automatically disengaged when the vehicle speed is reduced below 40 km/h or 25 mph.”

The company said that it will be contacting the owners through its service partners as and when the modified component is available in the country. “Once the modified component is available, Daimler AG will inform the affected customers in writing through its MB service partners. On receiving this letter, customers are requested to contact their MB service partner in order to arrange an appointment for the measure to be carried out. This measure will be free of charge for the customer,” it said.

Although no global figure for the recall has been issued by Daimler, some 136,751 vehicles will be recalled in the US and about 50,000 in Germany, Mercedes-Benz representatives in those two countries had earlier said. No crashes or injuries have resulted from the issue, Mercedes-Benz US spokesman Rob Moran had said.

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