I got hit tonight

[Zach Maggio]

On the way home from work tonight, I was stopped behind another car at a light when a lady hit me from behind. I saw her coming up pretty fast, she hit the brakes -- too little too late -- and skidded pretty forcefully into my rear end. My whole car actually moved forward -- thank God I left enough room between myself and the car in front of me so I didn't hit it. After we pulled off to the side of the road, I got out expecting to see my rear end at least partially crumpled. What did I see?

Absolutely nothing.

Not even a mark. I've only owned an MB for five months, I've heard they're built to last, but I couldn't believe my eyes. The lady who hit me couldn't believe it either. She hit me so hard she was sure I would have been hurt somehow, but there is nary a ding but for a half inch chip out of the bumper. Amazing.

I'm still taking it in to have the suspension and everything else checked out, you know how it is -- accident damage often has a funny way of making itself known after the fact.

As for me? My neck is a little sore -- and yes, I will be going to the doctor. And yes, I've reported it to my insurance.

Thank you, Mercedes quality!

Zach
1992 300CE

[aTOMic]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune; glad it wasn't more serious. Prepare to be pestered by her insurance company trying to get you to sign off and/or say that you are not injured. They called me at least twenty times after some negligent imbecile woman plowed into the back of my wife's car. I had to threaten legal action to make them stop.

I got tapped once and felt fine until about 36 hours later - I could not move my neck! It was scary, I thought it was serious but it was just garden variety whiplash. Went away pretty quickly with no treatment (although I did get checked out).

Good luck,
-Tom

[ymsin]

I share your confidence in the built quality of the MBs. I know an S-class who was knocked into from the rear and suffered nothing. But the poor little car that knocked it from the rear had the front end buckled in.

[Mingson]

What does her car look like? Good to hear you are okay. We should get together with Phillip in Oaktown one of these days.


Mingson

[Zach Maggio]

Hey Mingson,

The front end of her car did indeed suffer for the meeting between our two vehicles. My bumper took out her front turn signals and gave her a bad case of bumper wrinkle.

Yes, we should definitely get together sometime. Incidentally, this
happened on Oakland Ave, right where it goes underneath
580!



Zach
1992 300CE

[Holson Adi]

Same thing happened actually to my 230E (W124). A lady (no offence to women drivers.. it just happened to be a lady) hit it hard from behind with her Toyota Starlet (not sure if you've seen one)..
the black impact strip got torn a little...I don't see a need to repair it yet.. but the Starlet was quite badly smashed..

I guess it has to do with the car's size..
Once a Nissan Sunny cab hit the Toyota Crown (not sure if you've seen one either) that I was driving ... (it was my mistake)..
but only a minor damage happened to the Toyota's rear quarter panel (namely dents above the wheel)

I do remember seeing how badly wrecked the cab was...
I felt so guilty and stopped driving for a while...

[Kuan]

I'm glad you're ok. I'd take a closer look at your bumper. I got rear ended a coupla months ago and the impact caused a hairline fracture in the bumper cover. Small little thing like that cost around $600, and that was for the Ford. Almost $500 was in labor. So much for the insurance people harpin' about the high cost of parts on a Mercedes.

Kuan

[el presidente]

Zach,

Glad to hear you were not injured. Thankfully, another CE doesn't have to be taken off the road!

[aTOMic]

Zach,
Be sure there is no damage to the seat. My wife was in her last car (1989 Beretta) when she got rearended; it bent the seat out of adjustment to where it would not sit up straight enough. No telling how much that would have cost to fix/replace. The other car, a Cougar, suffered enough damage to render it undriveable (fluid leaks, radiator in the fan, fenders in the tires, broken windshield from unbelted imbecile driver) but the Beretta was barely bent. Got $1400 from the insurance for repairs, put it toward the new Benz instead. (Anybody interested in a slightly bent 1989 Beretta with 250,000 miles?)

-Tom

[placo1]

I thought I would share something I personally saw and amazed me. I believe that the front end of majority of vehicles is designed to buckle or nearly fall apart upon impact. The reason I say this is I was involved in a rear end collision a couple of years ago. The accident was minor however while we were over to the side of the road taking information a passerby was paying to much attention to us and rear ended the car in front of him. Coincidentally he was driving an Accord and his brother was in front of him driving the identical car. The car that was rear ended had a little bumper damage and thats about it. The other car was totalled. The radiator was busted the bumper was off and the air bags had gone off. The car had to be towed. Just thought it would be interesting to post this.

Placo1

[Mingson]

Kuan is right, you should take a closer look. This is what I would look for.

The bumper has the black plastic impact strip and underneith that is foam that absorbs the impact. I believe there are also impact absorbing cells between the inner metal bumper and frame also. I would go a good body shop and ask them about that. In addition, I noticed that on all W124 cars the sheetmetal between the trunk and the bumper is really fragile. That portion of the cars is extremely susceptible to crumpling on small impacts, I have seen even parallel parking in the streets of SF to damage that portion!