E55 KEV

Except from NBC Dateline Sept 8 2003 (Crash Test) about repair cost to 5 MPH bumper test by 'Insurance Institute For Highway Safety':

2003 MERCEDES E-CLASS

Now the $60,000 Mercedes E-Class. Most people would expect it to have great bumpers. Yet in the pole test there were nearly $3,000 in repair costs.
“Extensive damage to the trunk lid here, damage to the bumper cover which has got to be replaced, damage underneath,” says O’Neill.
The Mercedes E-Class gets a poor, which seems to show bumper quality has nothing to do with the price of the car.

MANUFACTURER’S RESPONSE
Mercedes and Nissan, the maker of the Infiniti G35, say their bumpers are as good as their competitors and Mercedes says in this case style is more important than the repair cost of a bumper.”

Mercedes is Crazy. We expect Style and low repair cost. What a ridiculous statement.

full article:

www.msnbc.com/news/961420.asp

nyca

with the crumple zone design, its hard for the car to decide not to crumble at 5 MPH, not knowing if its a 40MPH rear end collision.

E55 KEV

crumple zone has nothing to do with a 5MPH bump. This is a speed from normal backing and parking. Airbags do not go off from a 5 MPH bump. The damage is mostly cosmetic and too costly. $3k worth of damage during a parking accident is crazy. I would hate to replace my hood or truck lid due to a parking bump.

Otto

same as bmw -- a minor bumper repair may cost you 3000+ bucks but it does not mean your car is NOT safe.

both mb and mbw allow car body to absorb the collison impact in order to protect passengers. this comparison focuses on repair cost ONLY which is not important for most of mb owners.

FInality

Of course they dont mention if the Parktronic system got damaged....

Its very expensive to replace especially in high end cars. The advantage the E class has over all these cars is the chances of you backing into something are slim to none thanks to parktronic so your costs should be zero.

However is some moron hits you from behind sucks for him.

Mercedesfan

Well if you have a $500 deductible what difference does it make if it costs $600 or $3000 for the repair? If the insurance industry uses this as an excuse for upping premiums then they should give a credit back for adding Parktronic as in actual use I would bet there are fewer Mercedes E Classes backing into poles because of the availability of Parktronic.

Otto

nothing to do with parktronic in most of cases for a rear bumper damage -- most of cases are caused by the car behind your car cannot stop in time. but in this kinds of cases, whoever hits your mb from rear has to pay the HIGH insurance premium.

LA320OWNER

Not to be cynical but that's why I pay $2k a year to insure the car
(and that's with the good driver discount )

RJC

I saw the test and I don't remember seeing the parktronic holes in the bumper (could have missed them though). Mercedes excuse is sooo lame. I guess parts are a huge money maker for them at our expense. If Saturn can manufacture door panels at a very reasonavble cost that can take a beating, why can't MB make a decent bumper that stands up to the speed of a fast walk crash especially for $3,000.00!?!

E55 KEV

That is the point of the crash test - if the bumpers were better your/our premiums would be less. The Insurance companies charge you more money in yearly premiums "because" the bumpers are so lousy and they are expensive to repair. You may only be paying a $500 deductible but if the bumpers were better quality that yearly $2k insurance bill would be lower.

jim256

If I'm not mistaken, didn't the government change the bumper standard to 2.5 mph, and they test for that? The Insurance Institute tests at 5. Similarly, the govt standard for front impact is at 35, I believe, and the Institute tests at 40. The old chrome bumper bars with the big rubber boots on each end were the MB solution at the time to 5 mph. I'll take a little style and a 2.5 bumper, personally. If the bumper standard were changed to 10 mph, the Institute would test at 20, so they'd have something to write about.

LA320OWNER

Agreed but the "Catch 22" is MBZ doesn't want to DIRECTLY raise the price of the cars and lose market share so they have us pay less to them by deflecting the costs to our insurance premium. Thay way we are pissed with the insurance compnay (whom everyone hates anyway) and theoretcially happier with MBZ.

It's crazy but the marketing psychology ultimately works, becuase at the end of the day we think we are paying less for the car.

JohnAMG

A $50,000+ car should have a bumper that will survive a 5 MPH test. If not, why spend this kind of money and just buy a Hyundai. Any Mercedes Benz should stand for quality, durability and reliability. Preference of styling over durability is a poor excuse. It is like your dentist made you a beautiful front tooth but told you not to bite on anything. Others said the insurance will cover it so what is the big deal. The big deal is wait until you next insurance surcharge then you will wish your bumper can survive at least 5 MPH test. No wonder Mercedes quality ranking is going down the toilet I may have to reconsider trading in for the new E55 in the future.

John

rdtjr

Real life experience:

When test driving the E500, the salesman had to drive it out of a warehouse. He didn't realize that there was a large concrete pillar behind the car. He put it in reverse and seriously whacked the pillar at an angle. Don't know the speed but it was enough force to automatically tighten the seatbelts. The only damage appeared to be some chipped paint on the bumper. It impressed us enough that we made that a consideration in our purchase decision.

PS - Wonder which of you bought that car?