Folks been watching the news lately? Apparently only two out of twelve midsize vehicles passed the IIHS side impact crashtest. I wonder how an older MB would fare against this test. What do you think?

http://us.cnn.com/2004/US/04/18/side.crash.tests/

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Survivability in side-impacts is critically dependent on side-impact airbags (rib-level and head-level). There is precious little "crush space" in such an impact, compared with a longitudinal collision. Seats are also not normally designed to provide support in a side impact. They actually use a specialized crash test dummy for this test, to measure its effects on the human body.

You can have a car that is very solidly built, like the W126, but this would perform poorly in such a test, because of the impact forces of the passenger with the door of the car, and the lateral whiplash on the passenger's neck.

Side airbags are one of the main reasons we should be considering the newer Benz models.

My W123 240D was hit at 50 MPH in the passenger side door, directly, with the passenger in the seat. She was not injured what so ever. Door protrusion into the passenger compartment was roughly 2 inches at maximum (where the padded arm rest had been pushed in) The safety glass shattered into smaller and less jagged pieces than it did in the 95 Honda Civic I was riding in. She suffered no cuts, bruises, or abrasions.... Nor did I. The door did it's job perfectly in handling it's 55 MPH collision.

All I can say is I love my Subaru, but dear god I hope a collision like that doesn't happen in my Subaru.........

So in short, I can say my W123 faired VERY well in a side impact collision, and saved the life of a good friend.

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