I just read the latest IIHS report on the death-rate of vehicles and found it interesting. According to the stats, the W211 is one of the safest vehicles to be in.

What I found a bit shocking is the disparity in death-rate for the models with and without AWD. According to the report, there has been ZERO deaths reported for W211 with 4MATIC equaling the same ZERO death rate for the Audi A6, which of course has Quattro AWD. The death rate for the RWD W211 is 12. While that number is significantly lower than average it is quite shocking to see the disparity in the exact same identical vehicle with and without AWD.

http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4605.pdf

This is my first vehicle with AWD and personally I'd never buy another vehicle without AWD.

 

wow... this deserves more attention. or maybe im intrested because i own a s550 4matic.. either way, good news to me

 

This is not surprising to me. For all my grousing about my old 06 E3504matic one thing about it is that it felt safe. The worse the weather was the more glad that I was in it. It was more stable in the snow than my A4 quatto. From a safety standpoint truly a great car.

 

Pretty cool! Glad to own a safe car, though not the safest lol no 4Matic here...

 

keep in mind the low sample data compared to cheaper or lore popular cars. While the 211 may be fairly safe, it's nothing special. I feel much more safe in my 126.....

 

it is because of the skew towards the older and more experienced demographic for these cars.

 

Actually that theory does not hold up as what was measured is not the net incident rate, but the number of incidents per million registered vehicles. So what was measured is a percentage proportional to the ratio of incidents to vehicles in service. There are many other less popular cars on the list that fared considerably worse with much higher incidents.

I agree the W211 is nothing special though pretty safe in general. As for how you "feel" what is safer, I am a numbers person and I would go with crash test results and actual crash statistics to determine what is actually safe I'm sure some of the older cars "feel" solid and safe but what matters in a severe impact is how well the car pretty much sacrifices itself by deforming in a controlled manner to save you. At the end of the day rather than "feeling safe," I'd rather be actually safe and I think newer vehicles inherently posses much better crash dynamics... If I were in a severe crash, I'd rather be in a W212 rather than a W211.

However I wanted to point out the fact that combined with the W211, how it is driven, who drives it, (and who knows what else) has yielded the results it did and point out the difference with and without AWD.

 

It makes sense that the AWD version helps a lot in places with inclement weather. The majority of drivers have never experienced having the car let loose until it's too late (when there's an accident) so AWD will help a lot.

I highly recommend that everybody does a DE event at the track and/or an AMG Driving Academy class. It doesn't matter if you're never going to track the car in your life, but you learn how to sustain and control the car in a drift both in dry and wet pavement.

I live in California, and so I obviously don't need AWD and I personally prefer the control of a car that oversteers over a car that understeers. That's why I prefer RWD over AWD and FWD. Understeer helps keep the average Joe/Jane out of trouble (and why manufacturers dial in more understeer to the chassis), but in the end oversteer is easier to control and more precise (if you keep your wits about you during an emergency maneuver.) Plus you can't drift with an AWD car

btw, the W211 doesn't fare that well in side impact crashes. The W212 is much improved. But if a SUV or truck T-bones you, you have little chance no matter what sedan-type car you're driving. The height of SUVs and trucks are right at your window. Back in 2002 I saw a huge Escalade come at me in an intersection (they ran a red.) I was in my Porsche and I dropped a gear, punched it and cranked the steering wheel to the left. With so much oversteer (rear engine and RWD), my car's rear end spun out and I ended up in a 180. The SUV flew right past me. It would have hit my rear end otherwise. Amazingly there was an off-duty cop at the intersection who witnessed the whole thing and chased after the Escalade driver.

ps., multiple air bags make newer cars much safer over the older ones......

 

And I would venture a guess that 10 out of the 12 were AMG's.

 

Not if the other AMG drivers are like 220S

He seems to know what he's doing

I see your point though about needing to know what you are doing if you are going to be tossing around a heavy 500+ HP RWD car... But I can definitely see how someone with little experience can seriousely get themselves over their head with all the extra power. With that much power, you need to be thinking a few seconds in the future.

 

The W212 is indeed improved upon, but to say the W211 doesn't "fare that well" is misleading. The rating is Acceptable, mid-pack performance. It could be better, sure - but it could be worse (much worse). The driver has the chance of some internal organ injuries and the rear passenger will likely have no significant injury.

Also, when you say if a SUV or truck t-bones you, you have little chance no matter what car you're driving - what do you mean? Little to no chance of what? Survival? That's BS, plain and simple, and the tests prove that. Someone in a W212 is in good shape to stand up to such an accident. In instrumented tests the driver little risk of any significant injuries when t-boned by moving barrier that represented an SUV.

 

I think what 220s was trying to tell you is that when a truck or SUV tbones you, most of the car's side impact safety systems are in effect bypassed because the impact is higher than a car and there is just a piece of glass and the safety cage frame and to protect you. With just that and the airbag standing in the way there isn't much of a crumple zone there to help you.

I was disappointed to see the side impact performance of the W211, as it should have been better. If I were in a side impact, I'd much rather be in my other car, which is a Volvo S80. Preferably I'd like to not be in any side impact altogether with a truck/SUV as those are the nastiest accidents you can have in a car.

In a side impact, you literally have only about 12 inches between you and a 2+ ton block of steel headed your way at high speed and aimed right at your head. There is very little you can do to deal with the physics of such an impact beyond the protection offered by the safety cage.

For safety, Mercedes should have done better on the side impact and breaking performance.

 

How much does the Bosch/Mercedes ESP contribute? Must be significant in my opinion.

 

Here's a direct quote from the IIHS:

"Among crash deaths, the percentage of deaths from side impacts has been increasing. The institute gives two reasons: improved front impact safety, which has reduced the number of front impact deaths, and the popularity of SUVs and large pickups. Taller vehicles like SUVs and tall trucks increase the risk to car occupants because they strike cars higher up on the body and away from stiff structures that can help resist the crushing force of the impact. Taller vehicles also strike closer to the heads of those in a lower vehicle like a car."

In the meantime the IIHS is now using a higher barrier that emulates a 3,300-pound SUV and hits the driver side of the vehicle at 31 mph. Sadly 31 mph is nothing these days. And the curb weight of an Escalade is a whopping 5800 lbs. The Escalade that just missed hitting me accelerated at the last minute to get through the light. They were probably doing 50 mph or more. I would have likely been killed or severely injured if they had hit me (and especially in a low-to-the ground Porsche.) The W211 didn't test that well in those side impact IIHS tests, unfortunately (btw, the previous E60 BMW 5 series was not as good and rated marginal in side impacts.)

In the end, I'd much rather be T-boned by another sedan than a big 4x4 pickup truck or heavy SUV, given the choice.

Yes, I say the W211 doesn't fare that well in side impact. It really should have a "good" all around. It doesn't. It's rated acceptable. Why doesn't it rate good in side impacts? And just to say it could be worse is nonsensical. Of course it could be worse. It could be marginal. Then it could be worse than marginal, it could be poor. The carpenter did a bad job on the house renovation. Well it could be worse, he could have done an even crappier job. Hey, it's still a bad job.

The W211 has never made the top pick in the past. The W212 (and many more newer cars these days) have better side impact ratings and better ratings all around. The F10 and the W212 have made best pick. New cars are so much better than older cars, and they keep getting better. And don't forget that all those ratings have to be considered relative within their weight class.

Anyway, each accident is unique. There was a W211 accident in Orange County (CA) a month or so ago. The result was the opposite of any NHTSA or IIHS testing. In a side impact with a pick up truck, the driver walked away and the rear passenger died. The opposite of what the testing said should have happened.

Stay alert and drive defensively. That is no doubt one of the best accident prevention techniques. Cars that handle well and can be maneuvered quickly are also a good bet.

 

Well, gee, there are a LOT more 2WD W211 sold than 4WD W211.

 

It is not as off as you might think...

Based on the cars.com national used car database these are the figures of cars available for sale at the moment. Not scientific I know but a representative sample, nevertheless.

However they have normalized all the vehicle model stats to the same total count by multiplying the sample size and incidents to reflect the rate for a million registered vehicles. So though there are fewer 4MATIC models available, the rate per million registered vehicles is normalized when you consider that it is a ratio extrapolated to a million registered vehicles based on the incident rate.

E350(2146)
E350 4MATIC(1829)

E500(306)
E500 4MATIC(163)

E550(207)
E550 4MATIC(69)

 

Good info. I've been waiting for the IIHS to publish their updated list.

The E's have always been at the top of preventing deaths, when the IIHS releases these. With the W212 actually being the first E that performs fantastically in standardized tests, as well as continuing the E's safety lineage, hopefully that trend continues upward.

Now I gotta think about selling my Malibu as the 67 rating isn't as good as I'd like it to be, even though the car does very well in standardized tests (why not get a car that passes in every way!).

As for the W126 VS W211 thing, the W126 might feel more solid and "safe", but the W211 is a much safer car, no way around that. The W126 has this indestructible aura, and performs incredibly for its time period (even compared to modern cars), but it simply cannot be considered safer, when taking facts into account. Higher strength steels, thicker steels, that make up for the safety cage, and more active safety (electronics, etc.) measures, not to mention Airbags.