Ron, those are exactly the questions that I hope the factory asked before they designed the skid plate. Clearly, the skid plate is not designed to protect the underside of the car against all possible situations. It is a compromise solution -- oil pan protection at minimum cost in dollars, inconvenience, and weight.

Looking at the underside of my car, I would say in reply, that a hit by something big enough, hard enough, will buckle the tubing frame of the skid plate or bend the skid plate, which will then hit the oil pan. The skid plate, which is 3mm thick steel, will spread the force of the impact over a wider area, as opposed to the lighter gauge oil pan (anyone have a number?), which will take the force of (a large rock?) at one point and puncture or buckle, possibly damaging the oil pump and its pickup.

The result will be a damaged skid plate but an undamaged oil pan. I do not see any resulting damage to the car's frame members, which are even heavier steel, unless the impact is so great as to do lots of other damage. In that case, the damage will be much worse than the attachment points for the skid plate, probably involving tearing of the engine from its mounts. That is beyond my ability to imagine.

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970