Mercedes-Benz is recalling 310,667 vehicles across seven model lines because a corroded door switch can stop the car’s parking brake from engaging on its own — meaning a vehicle left in gear or park could roll away with no one behind the wheel. The defect is documented in NHTSA campaign 26V481, filed by Mercedes-Benz USA on July 24, 2026.

Key Points

• The problem sits in a small part: the micro-switch inside the driver’s door lock, which can corrode and fail to detect that the door is open, according to the manufacturer’s own defect description.
• That failure matters because many Mercedes models use the door-open signal to automatically engage the electronic parking brake or “Auto-Park” feature when the driver gets out. Without that signal, the brake may never engage.
• Mercedes’ filing states plainly: “A vehicle rollaway increases the risk of a crash or injury.”
• Nearly every affected nameplate is a compact or compact-SUV model, spanning model years 2019 through 2026.

What’s Affected

• A-Class / A 220 4MATIC: 2019-2022
• CLA / CLA 250 4MATIC: 2020-2021
• GLA / GLA 250 4MATIC (including AMG variants): 2020-2026
• GLB / GLB 250 4MATIC: 2020-2026
• C-Class / C 300 4MATIC: 2022-2023
• GLC 300 / GLC 300 4MATIC: 2023-2024
• CLE variants: 2024
• Total units potentially affected: 310,667

What Owners Should Do

Owners can already check whether their specific vehicle is included by searching their VIN on NHTSA’s recall lookup site, which has had records available since July 31. Formal owner notification letters are expected to go out September 18, 2026. Once notified, owners should schedule a dealer visit, where Mercedes-Benz dealers will replace the affected driver’s door lock at no cost. In the meantime, owners of covered vehicles should not rely on Auto-Park engaging automatically and should manually confirm the parking brake is set and the vehicle is in park before walking away, particularly on any incline. Questions can be directed to Mercedes-Benz USA customer service at 1-800-367-6372, referencing campaign 26V481.

A rollaway defect is one of the more unsettling categories of automotive recall precisely because the failure is silent — there’s no dashboard warning light for a parking brake that quietly doesn’t engage, only the moment someone turns around and the car is no longer where they left it. With this recall spanning seven separate model lines and seven model years, it’s also a reminder that a single shared component across a manufacturer’s lineup can turn one supplier-level corrosion problem into a fix affecting hundreds of thousands of cars at once.