My car was ALMOST killed by a deer last night

[pawoSD]

So last night I was heading home from lansing michigan back to Grand Rapids, about a 71 mile drive from where I go to, and in the last 1/3rd of my drive, all the sudden while I am in the right lane, all by myself, going about 75mph, clear night overall, I see two deer running like mad towards the freeway up ahead, entering into my headlight swath, only problem is that they were about 45 feet away!! So my instant reaction was to swerve left REAL hard, which I did, I cleared the whole left lane and part of the left shoulder in about 4 feet with my massive swerve. (I did not leave the freeway though, I was able to swerve right again and continue on just fine.) The car handled it excellently, I've never had to swerve that hard at that high a speed before. I am 99% sure that if I'd been driving some SUV or something and had to swerve that way it would have flipped and rolled the vehicle. Yet another reason why I will ALWAYS drive a W126/MB.

[Hit Man X]

That would have been bad to see another W126 off the road. I drive pretty slow on the freeway... 65mph max usually. I have no place to go fast.

[pawoSD]

If you go 65 in michigan in a car you'll get run off the road (trucks can pull it off since they're bigger than the speeding SUV's ), even at 75 most people pass me You need to go about 82-84 to "keep with the pack" of everyone going past. But at 75 I can't get a speeding ticket, so thats where I'll stay. I also noted that I am getting almost 28.5 mpg's at 75 or below with cruise control and about 27.8 with it off but speeds kept below or at 75. Very cool!

On a happier note, only 535 miles or so till my car churns over to 240,000 miles!!! Neat!!! I'll probably hit that by the end of this week.

Our '83 is only 290 miles from 271,000, wshew.

[Mismost]

Well flip side.....I almost killed a deer last night! Huge Axis buck I've been seeing crossing into a friend's hayfield. He was there, I was there, and so were about 99 other Axis deer, no clean shot. Oh, well, next time.

Around here, you shoot 'em and eat 'em in self-defense. You use a weapon or your car....I prefere the rifle method!

[nrthrngreaser]

last summer I just about took out a deer here in northern wisconsin, 2 lane road, deep grassy ditches, and a 300d with 4 big guys, 4 bikes on the roof, and a trunk full of gear and beverages. 55 mph, hard braking, hard left and never lost control. bit of body roll, little tire squeal, clean out shorts and continued on our way.

karl

You really have to watch those things, I've come close too many times and I actually totaled a a 914 about 25 years ago (driving too fast, hit deer, lost control, hit tree, etc.). I came very close to hitting one with my 300D in SC last summer.

[Boardmonger]

This same thing happened to me in march. I was driving up in the hills late at night with a friend and was probably going 50 or so and I saw the deer on the shoulder not too far ahead. I assumed he was going to run out, so I applied the brakes and came to a quick stop about 10 feet infront of her just as she walked into the lane. I actually stalled the car because I only remembered it was stick as I came to a stop. I was pleasantly suprised by the braking power.