Real-world stories of Mercedes being safe vehicles?
 

I was at the claim centre accompanying a buddy to have his car looked at by the adjustor. His car was just keyed, nothing major, but we saw other cars there with various degrees of damage.

Struck up a conversation with the adjustor on how different models fair in terms of protecting the occupants. He told me that MBs were among the tops -- the crumple zone, the cabin integrity, the sheet metal, and down to how well the seats were bolted down, all contributed greatly to occupant protection in collisions.

Guess what he said might reasonably reflect the real-world situation, based on his job as an insurance adjustor (and it wasn't like he was trying to sell me an MB). He's in his 50's and looks to be in the field for a number of years.

Maybe you've heard similar stories from those 'in the field' too? Care to share?

I was in the field being T-Boned by a Civic doing 55+. Will that work? My seat shrunk to about a foot wide and I was slightly amnesiac. Had a couple stable fractures and a few cracked ribs but lived.

That certainly would do it, aklim, and thanks for sharing the story. That crash had to be very serious but glad you were in a C280 than a lesser vehicle. The Mercedes did its job, and maybe that would keep you a lifetime fan?

Damn, aklim. Hope the civic was totaled as well.

Impala. When we replaced that vehicle, we didn't have a choice. It was MB all the way.

Ara, the girl in the civic had broken ribs and wrists among other things. We saw the civic and it was safe to say that the frame was toast and the steering column looked like it was pushed back. Both her airbags deployed. Yes, it was a 02 civic and now it is scrap metal. Like I said, the road was a 55 mph road and I don't think anyone there was doing under that.

Ok, real life from the salvage yard. EC in KY has over 1000 MBs and only three were fatals as far as Bernard knows. One was basically run over by a truck. Looks like more died of old age/neglect than horrific wrecks.

There is a video out somewhere on the net of a Mercedes flipping over on the autobahn doing over 100... the car veered out of control, and flipped something like 5 times, then when it came to its resting place the driver opens up the dorr and walks away!

now, that is what I call a safe vehicle.

I saw that video too, I think it was a 560 SL or similar. The hard top even got knocked off about the last rollover, if it is the same video. But like you said, he got out and walked away, glad to be alive.

That video showed a R129 flipped about 5 times.

Last August, I was communting to work in my CLK. Doing maybe 50, maybe a little faster on a large four lane city street. Guy in a Dodge Ram makes a left in front of me (from the other direction). It all happened very fast. I slammed into the side of this truck doing 55-0 in an instant. Went a little bit underneath it. I walked away. The entire front end of the car was pushed up almost to the windshield. There was coolant and oil all over the ground. The sight nearly brought me to tears. The car even started right back up and I was able to pull it off the road. I had a sore back but no other injuries whatsoever. Looking at the aftermath, it was one of those crashes where you would think some one had been killed. Car was a total.

anybody know where this "ec salvage" from this thread is in kentucky is? what is the name of the dealer or 1-800 number? regular number?

Richard Geere didn't make it in that movie :(

Saw a W220 that hit an Accord that ran a stop sign. The Accord was in pretty bad shap, it was kind of an offset frontal crash. The Accords driver side front was messed up and the MB's pass side front was smashed in.

The ambulance was their and from what I could tell the Accord driver was in in and the MB driver was on their phone sitting in the back seat.

R129 video
 

That would be cool to see, but I've been searching EVERYWHERE and can't find it. Does anyone have a copy of the R129 rollover video??

Neal

I have the video somewheres, let me look and see what I can do.