Car Recall
Germany luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz will recall 555 S63 AMG 4Matic sedans for electronic control unit (ECU) program defects. This is because cars have been found to have a glitch in the ECU program that sometimes keeps fuel from flowing to the engine when the vehicle slows down. The drop in fuel can cause the ignition to turn off, which can cause safety problems.
The S63 AMG problem caused a public fervor when a frustrated driver, who purchased the car on lease in March this year, publicly smashed his 209 million won (US$179,245) S63 with a golf club and a baseball bat in front of the dealership in Gwangju in September after the dealer refused to replace it to new one, although it stalled three times while driving.
Regarding this, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced on Nov. 15 that it ordered the Korea Transportation Safety Authority to check the cause of the problem in the middle of September, and the probe is still going on. However, Mercedes-Benz decided to recall the cars, which will start in early December.
An official from Mercedes-Benz said, “This is Daimler AG headquarters’ voluntary recall carried out through its global quality monitoring. It is not related to the Gwangju incident that occurred in September.”
Through monitoring, Daimler AG headquarters concluded that the S63 sedan has a defective engine ECU program which can stall the car due to fuel supply problems when slowing down.
The group announced to recall the model on Oct. 18 in Canada and on Oct. 29 in the U.S. The MOLIT will also confirm the recall in Korea when the defect correction plan is submitted.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz Korea agreed to exchange cars with the unhappy driver who smashed his car to a new 2016 model on Sept. 18. However, there was the condition attached that the driver needed to pay partial restoration fees for the broken car and a decrease in the car price according to the period of use.