AshleyAlissa

Excerpt: If you’ve been watching any of the NCAA tournament lately you’ve no doubt seen an abundance of Mercedes commercials, one of which highlights the C-Class’ safety during a round of rollover testing. Since the commercials started airing we’ve received a couple emails requesting more info about the C-Class’ various safety aspects, so I thought I’d take a moment to publish a press release and photos covering the topic along with a short C-Class safety video.

http://www.emercedesbenz.com/autos/m...safety-update/

mr inkredibul

Just read the press release and there are a lot of safety features that I didn't know about. I particularly like the rapid flashing brake lights in panic stop situations.

Great post Ashley

JoeVal

From driving the roads of the world, I find that Mercedes cars, particularly A-B-C-class cars, and most motor vehicles for that matter, do not carry in many units a mandatory life-safety feature, namely a safe driver.

A recent statistical study in Argentina, plus defensive-remedial-common driving courses, teach that most accidents causing or not human casualties could have been prevented by the driver. So it is time to get a mirror and hammer on our minds strong remainders to maintain the calm if stressful situations want to get the best of us while we drive, and to maintain our driving within the law as much as the common courtesy we'd like to receive from others.

Your interest brought you to this safety thread, so think about practicing safety when you drive and enjoy a long life.

C300Sport

It is nice to know our cars perform well once the ***** hits the fan but you are absolutely correct..."cars don't kill people, people kill people"
My favorite are the texting while tailgating drivers...annoys me in my car, scares the crap out of me on my bike...I have to admit I have gotten off my bike a couple times at a light and "politely" asked them not to do it anymore.

RLE

In Washington State, the Governor is about to approve a bill making hand held cell phone use including texting a primary offense with a $124 fine. And teenage drivers cannot use cells at all while driving.

About time.

RLE

No flashing brake lights for US cars, unfortunately.

Sportstick

Would require rulemaking at NHTSA...they probably don't want to go through the Petition, Advanced Notice, Notice, everyone and their brother gets to submit comments/position papers, etc. MB has to show cost/benefit info to justify the rule change. It's not just as simple as adding the feature!!

joshg1001

even though we dont get the flashing brake lights, its cool that the car puts on the flashers if airbags are deployed, and unlocks the doors

JoeVal

Well, that is the purpose of the flashers, to show you are emergency standing in the right or wrong place.

aekara27

Does anyone have any info on why the C-class got "only" a 4 star on the frontal impact test? I have to admit I was suprized by this.

Sportstick

From looking at the data, it seems there was a slightly elevated left femur load in this test event of an 09 model. HIC and chest g's had excellent results. I heard for 2010, MB added a knee bag, but have not seen this first hand.

dcjwlee

I've seen last-gen SL models with this in LI.

Since we don't get them, I've become a fan of using the 4-way hazards when coming to abrupt stops.

I drive on 95 a lot on my way to NJ and there are an abundance of empty-headed drivers on that road. I've actually been rear-ended once on 95N. Ever since then any traffic that slows me from 50-55+ to less than 35 mph, I turn on the 4-ways (it's actually law to have your 4-ways on if you're doing under the minimum speed on a nearby state parkway).

Try it sometime and see how the distance between you and the car behind you changes!

p.s. Does anyone think there is someway to trigger the 4-ways when you brake past a certain threshold?

aekara27

Interesting. On both driver and passenger? Don't they separate the two?

Sportstick

As I recall, it was for the driver's left leg, although looking at it again, the passenger was 4 star as well. Those femur loads seem pretty reasonable. But, 4 star vs. 5 star can be as little as a 1% difference in injury reduction risk. I was looking for the NCAP cutoffs to see where they draw the line, but we can rest assured that these are excellent cars for safety performance. I place more credibility in the IIHS test in any event, because they use a higher speed into a deformable barrier which is much more representative of most real world impacts.

http://www.safercar.gov/portal/site/...resh=1&ID=7755

aekara27

To you know what the IIHS score was? The link is not longer valid.

Sportstick

It's a TOP PICK

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=464