My car came with curtains!!! Check it oooout!

 

 

I guess I'll ask what happened...

What happened?

 

Hit a pothole with the passenger front.
Three airbags on the driver side went off and the tensioner for the front passenger locked. Airbag on the rear door ripped the leather too.
Certainly something you don't expect from hitting a pothole!
Driving along, hit a bump and BAM!...pillow right beside you! Scared the crap outta me!

 

Warranty cover that? they ask if you had aftermarket wheels?

 

Had a brief conversation with the dealer and his initial reaction was "no way". Said that hitting a pothole hard enough could definately deploy the airbags, not a warranty issue. Car still tracks totally straight.
Dealer doesn't do anything other than service and he referred me to the Benz bodyshop. Still have to talk to them about it.
Asked why if the pothole was hit with the passenger front tire, why would the driver airbags go off and lock the passenger tensioner. He rambled on about lateral g-force and computer sensors...blah, blah, blah.
Figured I was lucky enough to keep the car under control with pillows blowing up all around me!
Gonna go up to Benz Canada if I have to. Although, based on comments I've read from members here about dealings with Benz, I'm not gonna hold my breath.

 

your insurance should cover that under the comprehensive part of your policy.

 

Nope. I'm an insurance broker and that'd be classified as a collision loss.
Depending on what Benz does and if nothing how much the repairs cost will determine if I go through insurance. $5-6K isn't worth putting a claim in, pushing $10K is a different story.
Looking at some of the other threads on here, it seems that this isn't the first time something like this has happened.

 

Call a lawyer, and get it all documented. The dealer is right "no way".
The air bags are quite complex and are designed to deploy not necessarily on the first impact, but the second and more intense impact. The point I am trying to make is I could see the belts going to tight mode just hitting a pot hole but for the accelerometers to detect deceleration sufficient to deploy the air bags is (IMHO) a malfunction. We have seen many cases here of bent, cracked wheels from pot holes, but this is the first air bag deploy from a pot hole, I have heard of. Who's going to pay to have the drivers seat cleaned?

 

Happened to me in July, except that it was a rock or piece of metal on the ground that hit mine. 3 weeks and 7 grand later, I had my car back. Easily the most startled I have ever been in a car, including a wreck or two. I was just cruising down the interstate at highway speeds and BAM. Scared the every loving crap out of me.

Good luck. I went ahead and took the hit on insurance because my record was completely clean before that.

 

Sorry, the "no way" was the dealer referring to Benz picking up the tab.