Ownership of Cars.com's long-term 2015 Mercedes-Benz C300 4Matic test car continues to frustrate after a string of odd failures. During testing for an article on the sedan's trunk capacity, Senior Editor Mike Hanley was stuck with a big problem: the 40/20 portion of the split-folding 40/20/40 backseat became fixed in the folded position.
Related: What Can You Fit in a Mercedes-Benz C-Class Trunk?
2015 Mercedes-Benz C300; Cars.com photo by Joe Bruzek
The quirk rendered our five-passenger C-Class a three-seater with only the front seats and passenger-side rear outboard seat usable. It's a good thing none of our parents on staff had to rely on the C300 for school carpool duty because they would've been out of luck.
We could tug the seat up to a 45-degree angle, but there was resistance stopping the seat from going up any further. Closer inspection revealed the seat belt had locked into place, which is what it's supposed to do during heavy braking. Because the seat belt retractor is mounted to the seat itself — instead of the sedan's rear shelf — the locked seat belt acted as an anchor, holding the backseat down.
2015 Mercedes-Benz C-Class; Cars.com photo by Evan Sears
Attempting to pull slack out of the belt to release it proved fruitless; there just wasn't enough slack between the belt retractor and anchor to let the seat belt unwind and set the backseat upright.
We scheduled an appointment with our local dealership and dropped off the C-Class. A technician took apart the backseat to recoil the seat belt, but as a precaution, Mercedes replaced the seat belt and we're back in business with a fully functioning seat belt and folding backseat. The work was covered under the C300's four-year/50,000-mile basic and powertrain warranty.
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