gordongl450

Yesterday I was told a story by a friend who's parents were in a rollover accident in a 2002 Ford Explorer. The mom was driving at night and tried to avoid a box that was in the road. Rolled the truck a lot of times. She is in critical condition with head and torso injuries. Dad was in the passenger seat and is hurt but not critical. The roof collapsed a substantial amount, the front air bags did not deploy. That 2002 Explorer did not have side curtain airbags and probably did not have rollover sensors or anti-skid sensors.

Anyway, I hope my family and I, or anyone on this forum, are ever in a bad rollover accident. But, as I told my wife last night after hearing the story, I am happy that we have a new MB GL with all the safety features that could one day save our lives.

It has a strong steel passenger cage, ESP, rollover sensor, active restaints, side torso airbags and especially important, the side curtain airbags. Preventing head injury is so important!

Despite the compliants we all have on this forum (me included) with the vehicle and the occaisional "gremlin", we are fortunate to have the sense and the means to buy such a high quality vehicle. It could save our lives one day?

oinick

Well said. Kudos for economy of thought.

We are lucky, all of us on this board, to have the means to protect our families with such a vehicle. We would do well to remember that the cars we drive are exceptional, and that we are lucky to have them, and we are lucky to be able to afford them. Would the people gordon talks about in the thread starter have done better if they had been in a GL? Who knows for sure? But I'm willing to bet they would have done at least as well.

StevethePilot

Man, I haven't liked those things since people started blaming the TIRES for the rollovers. I don't care if the tire's made of chewing gum and baling wire, when the tire blows the truck shouldn't automatically go in to a roll-over!

On another side note, I saw a video (I think from Australia) of a Land Cruiser (80 series) that was towing a small trailer and was hit by a side wind that whipped the trailer to the side and rolled the Land Cruiser. The people walked away unscathed, and that truck is both higher than and heavier than an Explorer. You do get, to a great extent, what you pay for, and it's that knowledge that's kept me in slightly more expensive - but better engineered - vehicles.

Thank you for the story.

STP

85mm

That's why I sold our 2004 Discovery. Financially it would have been wiser to hold onto it as ours was quite reliable and had low miles, less than 25k. Looked great too. It was the lack of side air bags and handling in high speed lane changes that I always worried me. A Honda Pilot would have been a more practically replacement but I love the vault like feeling inside our GL450.

Although our GL's are better at high speeds changes, I'll still likely plow through an non fixed obstacle if I'm not 90% sure it's safe to swerve left or right. These things are still top heavy and have a higher likelyhood of rolling over. In my Civic though I'm more likely to try to swerve as I'd feel less confident of a head on collision but less worried about rolling over.

BJ021

Heading down to Iowa with the family in tow a few weeks ago we were zipping down the Interstate tightly packed with cars when the vehicles ahead of us swerved hard to the right to avoid some furniture that fell off someones truck. I quickly looked right and swerved just missing it at 75mph - didn't want to take someone else out with me. After I was amazed at how quickly the GL reacted and leveled off once we got around the trouble. I gave 'er a nice tap on the dash and said thanks! My wife and I just looked at each other and said that we sure are lucky we have this thing. Worried someone else would eventually hit the stuff we called 911 to have it removed from the road. It was a couch and lazyboy size furniture up along a concrete barrier and halfway into the left lane. No where to go but straight into it or into the right lane if there is room...

At no time did I feel the GL would roll, and I pulled on that wheel pretty hard.

gordongl450

BJ021,

Interesting story, thanks for sharing it.

That was exactly my point when I started the thread, I think in a crucial situation, the GL will be worth the money. Nothing is more important that the safety features to prevent an accident or if involved in an accident lessen the trauma to our fragile bodies.

emayer

Great posts everyone, I thought I'd add my near miss to the fray. I was driving the family home from a holiday party at night and was forced to evade 4 deer standing in the middle of the highway at 75 mph. I missed them all though the car 100 yds behind wasn't as lucky. With the amount of braking and swerving I did I am certain that most other SUVs wouldn't have fared as well. No regrets purchasing the GL so far...

PS. Happy New Year!

lkchris

When you swerve in any Mercedes these days, ESP will take over and individually brake wheels as required.

Thanks to the tin can Explorers, electronic stability control is now required on all new cars sold in USA. That and tire pressure monitoring.

Given we're talking GLs here, note that ESP will also counteract trailer sway, should you pull one.

DaCeptak0n

Gotta love the way the GL is built. Ever so pleasing aesthetically while superbly handling all the passengers within it...

kellerboy

sorry guys but Explorer ,4 Runner and ML = how can they sell such a p.o.s

MG

I spun my Disco 720 degrees in the middle of an Interstate when a Caprice classic on my left decided to dive for the exit on my right. he PIT'd me and we went for a spin.



Now, I have to say I helped it go around 720 degrees in order to bleed off energy and maintain my position in my lane rather than sin across other lanes and plow into other cars, but I have a couple hours on skid pads and knew what to do and what to feel for. My Disco went about 600 degrees like a champ and then I felt the wheels start to lift. I reversed the steering and all 4 wheels grabbed pavement as firmly as could be imagined.

I love my Disco!

oknish

That is exactly what I have experienced, albeit, only once and my sentiments have been echoed by others here.

StevethePilot

C'mon, what's wrong with the Ford Familykiller, the Toyota 4-skinner, and the Mercedes MicroLite?

gordongl450

The MB ML has a 5 Star Crash Rating and 4 Star Rollover Rating. Very good for a SUV. Has every active and passive safety system that the GL has.

The GL has not been tested yet, we will have to see if it matches the ML.

85mm

Great story. Glad you survived. So were you more proud than scared after the spin? I've always loved the Range Rover classic and actually owned a 94 LWB for a couple years. Sold it after the ABS failed while my wife and new born were driving it, yikes! I loved everything about it down to the cheap toy like plastic dash on a $55k vehicle. I'd love to get a SWB down the road but most are pretty poorly maintained.

MG

depends on how soon after the accident you are talking about

Immediately after I was petrified, as soon as the car stopped moving I did the quick whip around to check that everyone in the car was ok. Then I sat there forever warding off the shakes (realistically 10 or 15 seconds). The I remembered I was sitting dead stopped in the middle of a NJ interstate, so I got off the road, needn't have bothered really, the caprice clipped the car behind me too sending him off into a guard rail and he rebounded across and stopped everything from moving.

While I was pulling it off the road My Mother asked me "Where did you learn to drive like that?" and the State Police looked at the skid marks while diagramming asked me 4 times how I managed to spin twice around and never leave my lane. they were pretty amazed. I was pretty proud of myself at that moment too.

kellerboy

Seen too many rolled over .

but the a-class is wors

some know the stars

gas-man

This is the main reason I have always loved Mercedes. They are well-built even not for its performance but for its safety features. A lot of my friends have always told me that I like expensive things like Mercedes Benz cars, and that I should buy cars that are considered "Big Bang for the Buck" and that this things are just luxury. Sometimes I would just shrug it off because all they see is the luxury part of it, they don't see that maybe I buy it for safety reasons and not to flash around in a nice car. I have 3 kids and my family is worth every penny that I put in on my cars if it will keep them safe. We like to travel. I do get 1 week off every month so we usually spend it out of town even for just a weekend. I have already logged on 12,100 miles on my 5 month old GL and loving every mile I have driven that SUV.

oknish

I couldn't agree more with that sentiment. I will take a crappy GPS and a stinkin' HK audio and a crappy BTooth (you get the point) in an MB any time vs. top of the line gadgetry in any other car.