Have you ever in your life???
 

'97 E300D: about two weeks ago, passenger side lower control arm sheared off at the weld line (see pics). This vehicle was hit in that quarter back in January, so I ascribed the problem to residual metal fatigue/play that the body shop didn't catch at the time of the repair. (Note: my regular shop installed a pair of outer tie rod ends two weeks prior and didn't notice any problem.)

Last night the same car was towed in with the identical problem on the driver's side. WTF??

Any reports of lower control arm failure in the W210?? Is this a known issue?

FWIW: The W210 may be sexier, but its a lot more gimmicky, more complicated and way less reliable. Gimme a W124 with the OM602 all day long: simple, reliable, bulletproof.

Any rust around that break?

Got teenagers that like to catch air {granted, not easy to do in a 606.912} or hit driveway approaches hard?

Rust/teenagers
 

There is a little surface rust, but nothing severe, washes off with a little brake cleaner.

As for teenagers: no, but I had a VERY aggressive driver who knew he was about to get canned. So last Friday he put a hole in the oil pan of my '95 and drove it until he siezed a bearing; next day he took out my '97 and rammed the radiator into the fan. He didn't get another chance on Sunday.

I suspect he was trying to total the '97 too. Hate to sound paranoid, but I'm thinking either spite or sabotage. Unfortunately, the cab business in dozy, quiet Bangor is quite cutthroat. We are grabbing market share from the caprice/crown vic/roadmaster jalopies that pass for cabs in this town, and I wouldn't put it past my erstwhile competitors to slip a few hundred to a disgruntled driver to trash my cars. No comp or collison for cabs of course.

I just wanted to confirm that this is not a common problem in the W210; as I noted before, I've never seen anything quite like it in my life.

Putting the radiator into the fan means that he slammed the front end down on something. Either a ramp or trying to get airborne, as TMAllison says.