Photo: Mercedes-Benz
Bikeshedding is a very interesting principle, a metaphor that perfectly illustrates Cyril Northcote Parkinson’s Law of Triviality. A committee whose job is to approve plans for a nuclear power plant is prone to spend the majority of its allocated time on the most unimportant of details, including the materials used for the bikeshed, rather than focusing on the design of the reactor and other important stuff like safety systems.
Bikeshedding often applies to the automotive industry, which seems to be obsessed with the number of colors of the interior ambient lighting rather than the important stuff like reliability and quality control. Mercedes-Benz is one of the best examples in the biz, which brings us to the EQS sedan.
Introduced for the 2022 model year, the EQS has been recalled a whopping seven times since November 2021. In chronological order, the NHTSA’s website lists recalls for an infotainment system that may cause driver distraction, a disabled emergency call system, unsecured electrical connections, disabled rear lighting, a software error that may deactivate the control panel, and a steering wheel hands-off detection software gremlin.
The latest recall dates back to December 2021, when Mercedes-Benz launched an investigation based on an internal finding that indicated the usage of an incorrect tow eye in the logistics process of the all-electric sedan. Usage of the correct tow eye was immediately ensured. But come January 2022, a plant action was initiated to check and rework all vehicles still within the possession of the start-branded automaker from Stuttgart.
During this period, a further deviation affecting the tow point was identified. The issue stems from the coating process of the tow point at the supplier. Additional cleaning was implemented at the supplier, namely Mubea Tailor Rolled Blanks GmbH. The issue at the center of this recall is the insufficient thread depth for the tow points of the front and rear crossmembers.
This condition increases the risk of accident during transport and towing, which is why Merc has to replace the crossmember tow points of 2,526 vehicles produced for model year 2022 between February 2021 and February 2022. Had the Stuttgart-based automaker paid more attention to what actually matters in the long run, including quality control and supplier screening, the callback we’ve covered today wouldn’t have happened.
Mercedes-Benz dealers have already been informed of the recall, whereas known owners will be notified by first-class mail before August 30th.
Introduced for the 2022 model year, the EQS has been recalled a whopping seven times since November 2021. In chronological order, the NHTSA’s website lists recalls for an infotainment system that may cause driver distraction, a disabled emergency call system, unsecured electrical connections, disabled rear lighting, a software error that may deactivate the control panel, and a steering wheel hands-off detection software gremlin.
The latest recall dates back to December 2021, when Mercedes-Benz launched an investigation based on an internal finding that indicated the usage of an incorrect tow eye in the logistics process of the all-electric sedan. Usage of the correct tow eye was immediately ensured. But come January 2022, a plant action was initiated to check and rework all vehicles still within the possession of the start-branded automaker from Stuttgart.
During this period, a further deviation affecting the tow point was identified. The issue stems from the coating process of the tow point at the supplier. Additional cleaning was implemented at the supplier, namely Mubea Tailor Rolled Blanks GmbH. The issue at the center of this recall is the insufficient thread depth for the tow points of the front and rear crossmembers.
This condition increases the risk of accident during transport and towing, which is why Merc has to replace the crossmember tow points of 2,526 vehicles produced for model year 2022 between February 2021 and February 2022. Had the Stuttgart-based automaker paid more attention to what actually matters in the long run, including quality control and supplier screening, the callback we’ve covered today wouldn’t have happened.
Mercedes-Benz dealers have already been informed of the recall, whereas known owners will be notified by first-class mail before August 30th.
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