Mercedes = one tough car - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Aquaticedge · #1 11-18-2009, 10:50 PM

any of my other trucks or cars would be damaged.... I hit a Deer today, a smaller one but a deer nonetheless, All that happened was some hair pinched in the bumper and a little blood on the fender... no discernible Damage, oh, i was only goin 35mph... still one tough car...

RML · #2 11-18-2009, 11:00 PM

Good to know. I have not hit one yet but they are all over W PA. Seems like more every year.

greenuncle · #3 11-18-2009, 11:54 PM

Yeah, that is one reason I decided to go Mercedes. We live out in the country (Kansas) and those little critters (actually some are huge)are lurking everywhere. We came very close to hitting a large buck last night (hmmmm, would I have mounted it?).

It is quite a concept, hitting a stationary mass of flesh and bones at 65-70mph. I really don't want to experience it. If I do, having this tough car will make it less traumatic, I think.

okyoureabeast · #4 11-18-2009, 11:58 PM

I hate deer. There are so many lurking around on campus and i've nearly hit a couple of doe.

I wish there was a way to report excessive deer population on private property. They need some sort of open season here.

Did you kill that sucker? As much as I hate seeing a merc take one like that, one less deer is always a good thing.

pawoSD · #5 11-19-2009, 12:13 AM

Mercedes = good handling! My W126 has managed to get out of the way of deer going 75mph....without losing control!

Cr from Texas · #6 11-19-2009, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawoSD

Mercedes = good handling! My W126 has managed to get out of the way of deer going 75mph....without losing control!

"deer going 75mph"

and how fast were you going?

pawoSD · #7 11-19-2009, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cr from Texas

"deer going 75mph"

and how fast were you going?

I was parked! Which is why it was so amazing!

Aquaticedge · #8 11-19-2009, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by okyoureabeast

I hate deer. There are so many lurking around on campus and i've nearly hit a couple of doe.

I wish there was a way to report excessive deer population on private property. They need some sort of open season here.

Did you kill that sucker? As much as I hate seeing a merc take one like that, one less deer is always a good thing.

yeah, it Passed away just off the road, there's far too many around here.. people feed them... We cant plant anything because they'll eat it off... Soo many deer....soo many annoyances

Ian White · #9 11-19-2009, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquaticedge

yeah, it Passed away just off the road, there's far too many around here.. people feed them... We cant plant anything because they'll eat it off... Soo many deer....soo many annoyances

Which is why you love hunters just as much as NorthWesterners do

Jim B. · #10 11-19-2009, 01:56 AM

A long time ago I was in snowy slushy weather around Thanksgiving in my 1977 Oldsmobile 88 Royale coupe doing about 35mph and a deer leaped right in front of my headlights, and I just took my foot off the gas and seized the steering wheel harder and did not swerve (If I had swerved, I would have gone down a steep embankment).

The deer did not make it but the header panel (of hard plastic) was crushed but since it hit dead on; the headlights still worked but the upper hose leaked a little and the radiator moved a bit. The big GM railroad tie front bumper really helped a LOT. It was not hurt at all. The big blunt front end knocked the animal down.

The State Trooper who took the report, that night, told me I was lucky. He knew of a case where a guy in droop nose MG sports car hit a deer, which bounced up into the windshield and the deer antlers went into the left front window and stabbed the driver in the chest!!!

postscript: 3 days later while stopped at a stop light on Polk street, in San Francisco, at work, with the smashed front end, and a hood lashed down with rope my father gave me, a big UPS van slammed into the rear of the car and mashed it in.

A week later, driving it around, it looked like some refugee from an Oakland housing project's car!!!

Big old American cars I owned saved me in some BAD accidents, in San Francisco (my 1979 Coupe de Ville stopped and rrear ended at 40 mph with me inside; My 1982 Crown Vic was T boned by a 1958 Ford moving van, etc.)

That is why I LOVE safe cars, and the very reason, in the mid 1990s I went to Volvo and Mercedes Benz living and married in San Francisco then.

My '96 Toyota Corolla in my sig was a VERY short term fluke acquisition, and I will put that stubborn, but reliable little tuna can up for sale the day after Thanksgiving for $2600 to anyone that wants it.

Kurt Smith · #11 11-19-2009, 01:40 PM

Before I was driving age I did not like to hunt deer much. Too much work. I loved all kinds of bird hunting more than deer. Then I hit a deer with my first car, a TR6. I have been hunting deer every chance I get for more than 30 years now.

bustedbenz · #12 11-19-2009, 02:37 PM

They are pretty tough. I got gently rear-ended by a Ford SUV last week -- he was sufficiently far behind me that slowing down to not run over a dog in the road was a safe move, and he did get slowed down the first time, but then the dog turned around so I accelerated a little, the dog turned around AGAIN and dashed in front of me, and I stood on my head to not hit it (and was successful) but the guy in the Ford behind me didn't make the stop the second time.

Because we had been braking previously, and were both still moving forward (I wasn't at a dead stop when I got hit, I still had some forward speed) -- the impact was slight and there was no damage to the Benz whatsoever. His front bumper had an indention in it where it looked like it got smashed on a mounting bracket or something back behind it (I didn't look too close) but he said he wasn't worried enough about it if I wasn't.

Before the "that's why they told you in drivers' ed to just run over animals instead of braking" lectures start, just save the trouble please. (I'm not being ugly, I'm just saying I don't want to de-rail this thread and get in trouble

and you won't convince me) -- I decided before I did it that 1) The guy was far enough back that it should have worked out okay -- and indeed it did, in a way, since he didn't slam into me at 45. and 2) Saving a dog's life, for me, is worth paying for some minor auto damage and paying a traffic violation if it had come down to it. Would do it again in a heartbeat. No, I wouldn't stand on my head on an interstate and risk killing somebody's baby in a collision to save an animal, but this was a country road and we were all moving slower and there was just no way it could really be "that serious" so it was worth it. I do check my mirrors (very quickly) before I slam on the brakes in a situation like that to be sure it's "safe enough" to be worth the risk. In this case it was.

Point of the story? Yes, Mercedes are tough. I was concerned at first -- it wasn't that hard of a hit but it sounded bad and I thought it might have folded up a crumple zone or something -- but it didn't. Apparently the bumper shocks and the other vehicle's bumper absorbed all of it. The miracle is that he wasn't sitting high enough to have hit my sheetmetal instead of the bumper itself.

StaggerLee · #13 11-19-2009, 03:26 PM

That reminds me of a joke about two guys in a pick up truck that spot a sheep with its head stuck in the fence...

pawoSD · #14 11-19-2009, 04:11 PM

Those big old American cars only do well in certain accidents....in a bad front end collision they will disintegrate or send the steering column into your chest and the dash into your knees!

Not well designed from a crumple perspective.

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