You should note that this test involved a truck or SUV hitting the side of a sedan.

The 55mph side impact with the 240D must have been with a similarly sized car. If an SUV hit the 240D at 55+, I bet both the driver and passenger would have died. SUVs are so high, that the frame rails punch right through the weak doors in side impacts, with no crumple of the . They glide right over the frame rails of the smaller car, and into the passenger compartment.

I can't remember the statsistic from High and Mighty (Book about why SUVs are evil), but SUVs and trucks are something like 12X more deadly in side impacts than a passenger car.

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Cassidy
1982 MB 300DT - Running Great @ 104K!

1972 MB 220D - RIP @ ~200K (Dropped prechamber)
1992 MB 190E 2.6 - SOLD @ 145K