So the Hyndai has a cheap replacement bumper.....and I wonder how serious a personal injury would be sustained at 5 mph. in the Hyndai vs. the Benz?? Care to hazard a guess how the stakes go up of personal injury when the crash is 35 mph and up??? By the time you leave the hospital after driving the Hyndai, they have already trashed that piece of junk anyway. At least your chances are far greater in the Benz to survive and REPAIR the car......

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Dale, R129
W202

And again, it is possible that the MB bumper was designed for 2 purposes: meet the 2.5 mph fed bumber test, AND act as a crumple zone/safety component at 5 mph and above. The C is a smaller car, and the farther out from the passenger you can start absorbing shock, the better off the passenger will be. Who knows, maybe having an expendable rear bumper raised the injury threshold by 5 mph!?!

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John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

First off you take a chance every time you just sit in a Hyundai be it embarassment or what ever but a picture is worth a thousand words here is the article and video.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/522137.asp?bt=nm&btu=http://www.msnbc.com/tools/newstools/d/news_menu.asp

Here is MBs response to this BS.
MERCEDES-BENZ
As a followup to our discussion, please be aware that occupant safety is our first priority in designing all Mercedes-Benz passenger vehicles. For that reason, the C-Class performed outstandingly well in a recent IIHS offset crash test at 40 miles per hour and, as a result, they are liekly to designate the care a “Best Pick.” However, occupant safety would be compromised by reducing the repair cost of the C-Class bumper.

April 2000 issue has crash test reports.
This may be a good second opinion
in general.
By the way, who was Alexander Graham Bellinski???

.....the first telephone Pole !

gag..

__________________
1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

Listen up Mercedes Engineers,
Integrate Park Pilot with ESP and you'll never hit anything while backing up unless it hits you!

Kuan

Quote from Brian O'Neill:

*“If you have a car with bad bumpers,” says O’Neill, “it will cost more to own over the lifetime of that car than a car with good bumpers.”

Finally some words of wisdom. I agree totally. A Hyundai with a 3 year lifespan will cost less to own than Mercedes which has a 20 year lifespan.

Kuan

While at work today I ran into a lady who had seen the Dateline report. It's amazing how some people see something on TV and then, even after being presented with a clear, concise, and logical explanation of how their perception has been tainted, still refuse to reconsider their viewpoint. This lady was convinced that the Hyundai was a better car for the money (I'm still not ready to claim that a Hyundai is even a car, let alone a better car). Now, I don't pretend to be the most persuasive person around, but as an engineering student I know I was able to clearly explain the benefits of driving a Mercedes over a Hyundai in a logical and almost unarguable manner. This lady could not refute any of my statements. Yet this lady was so set on what she had seen she would neither listen to reason nor accept logical evidence that she was wrong. She was set on believing that Hyundais were exceptional cars. It was the most irritating moment of my week. I just thought I would share.

__________________
Ben

The MBs:
1976 300D (W115) - 330K and still going (sort of)
1991 300D 2.5 Turbo - Sold at 221K
1983 280SEL - Sold at 206K
1981 300SD - Sold at 232K

Ben300SD:
The frightening thing is, (Shields up, Mr Sulu!) 90% of the information that people read or see has been filtered through a Communications Major before being published as fact. Major schools of Journalism are now teaching that objectivity is impossible, so reporters should adapt to the goals of their editors and strive for entertainment value. (Sounds suspiciously like William Randolph Hearsts prophetic quote in the 1920s - 'the purpose of a reporter is to generate enough lucid copy to hold the advertising together')

Think Tank seminars, Government Conferences, and Media Watch web sites are now being devoted to finding ways to restore some objectivity to news, which has shifted from "reporting" to "Entertainment". The use of pyrotechnics described earlier was merely a network trying to see if there were ANY limits to "freedom of excess" oops, I meant, 'freedom of the press'.

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John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

Wow,
I didn't mean to upset so many of you when I posted this thread. I want to make this clear. DATELINE HAS NOT MADE ME BELIEVE THAT A HYUNDAI IS A BETTER CAR THAN THE C-320. I know how these television journals are. If they showed the Lexus and the Mercedes preforming better than the lesser expensive cars, no one would be surprised and would tune out. Since they're going for shock value, they want to give the viewer something unexpected. I am not going to pretend to know the truth about how a Hyundai preforms over a Mercedes Benz in a 5 mile an hour crash. I'm sure as hell not going to do it to my 300e (Although, I have been known to do stupid stuff... Don't ask me about breaking down by the side of the 101 freeway yesterday 300 miles from home in my Chevy pickup truck) I still maintain that for me and my family... It's a Mercedes Benz all the way. I wasn't born with this car; I bought it because I believe that it's the best. I don't expect to get any arguements from any of you! Anyway, if your wife or child wants to buy a Hyundai because of the report they saw on Dateline, put your foot down... but if some stupid idiot you run into on the street is on the fence between a Hyundai and a Mercedes Benz (Like that would happen) and their opinion is swayed by the television, just smile and say "Good Luck."

__________________
Kyle De Priest
2007 e320 Bluetec
2013 GLK 250 Bluetec

While we are on the subject on Hyundai, let me put in my two cents. My wife once owned a brand new '90 Hyundia (its a long story). That car was never right from the day she drove it off the lot. Within six months, the dealer had to put two mufflers on the car. Both of them fell off the vehicle while going down the road. By the time the car had 45,000 miles, it was using a quart of oil a week. We since moved away form the town we bought the car, and it was hard to find a Hyundai dealer to honor the warranty (another long story). During that time, I still maintain the car religiously and was hoping it would at least reach 100,000 miles. The interior was so loud that my wife had to wear ear plug to drive the damn thing. Well, the transmission was falling apart at 83,000 miles and sometimes it would freeze up and would not go in gear. Then the good news came. It was ran over by a tractor trailer in '94. Insurance paid us $2,000 for the car and I gladly pocketed the money. We sweared we will never go near another Hyundai again.
For those who do not believe what a pile of junk these cars are, let them go out and buy one and learn their lessons. Its their money or even their lives they are throwing away. Always remember, you get what you pay. The cost of manufacturing a bumper for a $12,000 car will definitely cheaper than a $40,000 car. And thus cheaper to maintain a cheaper car.

95 R129
98 W163

The trunk shouldn't pop open and be un-closable after a 5 MPH impact, especially in a car such as a Mercedes. Mercedes claims that a different bumper design would compromise occupant safety? I call BS on that one. If you're in an accident at 35+ MPH, bumpers don't play a very major role.

speedy300Dturbo:
I respectfully have to partially disagree with you. While it is true that bumpers do not play a *major* role in high speed accidents, their role cannot be ignored. The reason that a person survives in a good car and dies in a bad car is that good cars absorb the energy of the impact. Bad cars do not. Simply put, the driver of a poorly designed car will experience more energy from the force of impact than the driver of a well engineered car will.

This energy is absorbed by a variety of components, including the cars structure, the friction of the tires skidding as the car is hit, and the bumpers, to name a few. Sure, the bumpers will be mostly if not completely destroyed in a high speed collision, but the process of destroying the bumpers absorbs some of the impact energy, thereby lessening the blow to the occupants. I agree that the damage to the C-class car seems excessive considering the situation, but I would much rather have trouble shutting my trunk than chronic trouble with my neck or back.

I hope this doesn't offend.

__________________
Ben

The MBs:
1976 300D (W115) - 330K and still going (sort of)
1991 300D 2.5 Turbo - Sold at 221K
1983 280SEL - Sold at 206K
1981 300SD - Sold at 232K

They were not comparing the cars they showed in the tests. They were not rating it as far as safety goes either, they were rating as far as cost. Would I go and buy a Hyundai Elantra tommorrow because the bumper is cheap to replace? Hell no I wouldnt be caught dead in one. Would I go by a MB C320 even though the bumper is expensive to replace? Hell yes, if I have the money to buy a C320 then I sure do have the money to fix it when it gets backed into a pole. Anyhow most of the other cars didnt do too well either.

__________________
Adam,
2003 Volkswagen Golf GL 24,000 miles. 1.9L I-4 TDI 5spd.

1986 300E. 115,000+ miles. 3.0L I-6 1st daily ride, around town only. (Gone)

Well you only go around once in this world. Going around it in a Hyundai would be a big disappointment.