All generations and engines together · 8,597 MOT tests in the 2025 data
Worse than most SUVs per mile driven. Watch suspension and brakes. A used buy worth some caution. Check the MOT history for repeating suspension advisories before you go.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
The ZF asynchronous motors used front and rear on the EQC use a silicon-carbide mechanical seal that independent EV specialists say is prone to wear, letting coolant weep into the motor and contaminate the bearings. Symptoms are a coolant top-up that keeps dropping, a whine or vibration from the drive unit, and in bad cases a reduced-power warning. It has turned up as early as a few months of ownership in one owner report and as a wear-out failure around 60-120k km in specialist teardown reports, with a remanufactured motor running into the low thousands of pounds. No official recall or TSB for this specific fault.
The EQC carries its battery pack on top of a combustion-era platform, so kerb weight is around 2.4-2.5 tonnes, noticeably more than a diesel GLC. Owners and road testers report squeaking or whistling from the front end at low speed and on turns, plus faster-than-expected edge wear on rear tyres, both blamed on the extra mass loading the bushes and geometry. The measured MOT data for this segment backs the general pattern, suspension is the standout failure category for large SUVs, though it doesn't pin down which specific EQC component is to blame.
The electrically operated flap over the charge port can jam shut or stop responding, sometimes needing several attempts to open and occasionally needing the emergency release or a full replacement of the flap mechanism. Owners have reported it recurring within months of a first fix. It is inconvenient rather than dangerous, but leaves the car unable to charge until sorted, and Honest John readers have flagged long parts waits at dealers.
The central screen and instrument cluster can freeze, go blank, or reboot on their own, sometimes taking navigation and climate control with it until it resets itself or the car is power-cycled. Owners and forum posts put it down to software bugs or the system's memory filling up rather than a hardware fault, and a full software update usually calms it down for a while. Not everything is dealer-fixable first time; some owners report the issue returning after an update.
Mercedes issued two official safety recalls for early EQCs. One covers driver airbag modules built between August 2018 and September 2019 where the locknuts holding the airbag to its base plate could be missing or under-tightened. The other, recall R/2019/337-adjacent action dated January 2020, covers a front axle differential bolt on cars built between February and October 2019 that might not meet durability specification. Both are free dealer fixes and any EQC of that age should already show the work done on its service history.
All UK EQCs are dual-motor 4MATIC, but the extra front drive unit compared with a single-motor EV means two of the ZF motor/inverter assemblies that can develop the coolant seal wear noted above, rather than just one. It doesn't change the fault itself, but it does mean there are two units that can fail rather than one, and diagnosis needs to establish which axle is affected before ordering parts.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 8,568 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Same segment (Family & large SUVs), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.