The airbags Im most impressed with are the side curtain airbags (who wants a shower of broken saftey glass in their eyes after getting their car destroyed?) and the head protection airbags (keeps your interior clean from blood and brains by preventing you from cracking your skull open on a side pillar or windshield pillar).

Some of the Swedish cars Volvo and Saab are equipped with some additional saftey features that are not in Mercedes Cars. My Volvo S70 had a reinforced piece of metal that rose up from the door sill right near your hip. I think it was the SIPS system Side Impact Protection System. The other feature was the Whipps system which was a whiplash protection system. The seat track was equipped with energy absorbing components that would allow the entire seat to move back and forth to absorb the impact energy of a rear end collision rather than your neck and back.

A Doctor friend of mine got a free demo of the Whipps system while his C70 was in the shop for service. The S70 Loaner he was driving got rear ended by a fully loaded box truck and the entire rear end of the car got destroyed pushing him into another vehicle in front of him. He walked away without a scratch and was only slightly annoyed because his breifcase got mashed in the trunk.

Oh yeah the amount of air bags on new cars is truely amazing. I have seen cut away displays and literly most of the interior blows up. Your head isn't hitting anything but an air bag.

Safety wise cars have come leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. Just look at some of the stuff MB offers in the new S, truely amazing.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Could give a rat's ass about air bags or even seat belts for that matter. I just follow some simple rules that have gotten me to over a quarter of a century of driving with no accidents and no citations. I'm not saying I drive 55 in th fast lane. I drive at safe speeds up to 100+ mph if conditions permit. First of all I never drive in the #1 lane on highways or the super slab. That is where you get ticketed and that is where some yahoo comes through the divider from the other side and takes yoy out. I also never drive with knats. That is a group of drivers who don't know each other but insist on driving together in a tight group. When one knat screws up, they are all in trouble. I never let some A-Hole ride on my rear quarter. I turn on my signal to take his lane which P*sses him off and causes hom to speed ahead of me. I then turn off my signal. I always leave myself an exit in any situation. This has saved me twice where I was able to scoot out of the way and watch all the other cars pile up. I constantly check my rear view mirror so I know what's going on behind me. Stupid drivers are oblivious to their rear view mirror. That action alone saved the life of a man and his family about a year ago 20 miles from where I live. Road construction brought traffic to a hault. A guy in a van was watching his rear view to make sure everyone else was stopping. He could see that a semi wasn't so he pulled out of line and the semi slammed into the pickup in front of him killing the driver instantly. I also pretend that I'm invisible. That has saved me from many accidents. Most of you live in states with courteous drivers and don't have as much concern, but I live in a state which has the most inconsiderate A-Hole drivers in the world.

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Auto Zentral Ltd.

Mercedes wants to protect themselves. So incase you happen to be driving 25mp/h and being a very safe driver who drives in the fast lane and never listens to honks....well that one day someone cuts you off and you're car goes flying into a side barrier at you're modest speed of 25 mp/h kills you on impact and the steering wheel snaps you're face and ribs apart...well mercedes doesn't want you're spouse or kids coming after them, let alone a lawsuit by an insurance corp seeking to be refunded their settlement payout for the victim driving a mercedes who's air bags never deployed...

You can't blame mercedes for that, sure the car's have airbags, but car's get old, and so does the relabilty of electronically controlled components. Alot happens in 10 years. Doesn't mean they won't work, but incase there's a chance they don't work, you can't sue. My buddy wrote off a 2004 Maxima on a snowy day as the car skid at 60 km/h..and when it spun around it damaged every panel on the car and the airbags never deployed and he barely lived....so don't put too much trust into those things either.

Yes Yes!

And thats why you should grind up your whole Mercedes after 10 years. Too much liability if your steering system or braking system just randomly stops working and causes an accident. We want to avoid all legal liability you know.

Just being sarcastic. Seems things are going that way though with most newer cars. With all the talk about protecting the enviroment no one looks at the impact car factories have on natural resources and the enviroment. While the disposable car might work well for an automakers bottom line its certainly a waste of resources.

If all car makers stopped making vehicles tomorrow the world would still have enough cars for the next 50 years. Take a look at the Cubans for example. They have not had cars or parts imported there for years yet seem to be able to keep their cars running.

Yea its amazing what the cubans have done with all the 40 + year old American car's, looks like they left the dealership yesterday. But the cubans have alot of Eastern Europe and some western europe car's. It was only an American embargo till a few years ago, so they do have alot of other non american car's in cuba. I've seen pics of Volvo's and lada's in cuba...

Cuba was flooded by Eastern European cars during the Soviet influenced years. Hence lots of Ladas and Skodas came into the country.

When the Soviet era ended in Cuba (what the locals call the "Special Period") other European companies slowly started to get into the game.

Now Peugeot and Citroën are two of the most popular brands in Cuba. Although, we cannot leave out Mercedes-Benz, as the fleets for all major luxury hotels are basically E 200s (W210s -sedans and wagons-).

Taxi cabs were usually Citroëns and Ladas. Now Peugeot 307s are taking over.

Mercedeses are not unsual to be seen the island (beside the E 200 taxicabs), since many Embassies and some rental car companies do also have Benzes. Audi is another popular brand among Embassies and rental companies (A4s, A6s and even A4 Cabriolets).

Finally, most of the beautiful American relics from the 40s and 50s you see on the streets are either running with adapted Lada engines, and most, with agricultural russian tractor diesel engines. Quite a mechanical masterpiece! The old V-8s just had to die, and anyway, at gasoline prices on the island, it is almost impossible to run a V-8 gasoline engine daily, unless you are Fidel Castro.

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A. Rosich
CL 500, 1998
S 500 L, 1998
E 320 T, 1995 [Sadly sold ]

Its amazing how long you can keep a car going if your willing to invest the time and money in it. The problem is our disposable culture here in the US. Nobody repairs ANYTHING. A friend was about to toss out a very nice German Skeleton Clock once because it stopped ticking. All it needed was an adjustment and lubrication. I got the repair done for free by a neighbor who is a clock guy. A free repair vs buying a new clock. Our wasteful consumption here in the USA is a harmful disgusting disease!!!!

This sort of thing also sickens me. It certainly isn't just with cars. There is just something Unamerican (at least up to mid-20th century American, anyway) about being wasteful. Maybe it was the early Puritan influence. Not that long ago, it was noble and worthy of respect to repair something and make it like new. Now, it's just weird and/or cheap behavior.

My pet peeve is electronic landfill.

Of course, manufacturers have realized this, and now everything is built like crap, because it just doesn't matter anymore.

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86 560SL
With homebrew first gear start!
85 380SL
Daily Driver Project

http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/mercedes.htm

Don't forget, in America, everyone wants to be rich and the cost of labour to repair computers, tv's, watches, plumbing, electrical, mechanics all exceed $75 dollars an hour for qualified labour. Now why spend a couple hours of expensive labour on a product that will still be considered used or old? Most times its just cheaper to buy new then repair old. Its just how it is, and why our society is like that.