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2007 R320 Explodes during blizzard

22 messages, Last post on Dec 18, 2008 at 2:44 PM
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Replying to: ncrews (Mar 16, 2007 1:39 pm) Gee, simply taking foot off the pedal would have prevented this problem. Blame the vehicle. |
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Replying to: ncrews (Mar 16, 2007 1:39 pm) PS An Acura MDX would not have gotten out of that snow drift. |
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The car was purchased new from Mercedes of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Pictures and complete forensic expert report: http://www.landxml.org/R320 Summary: A defective Mercedes "4Matic" system caused the rear tire to explode causing $25,000 in car damage and $1500 damage to home. Mercedes and the dealer will not stand by the car and only tell us that it is an insurance issue. Automotive warranty items, including factory defects are not covered by insurance - only the resulting damage is. To date, the dealer and Mercedes refuse to simply "undo the deal" giving us our money back and paying actual out of pocket expenses related to the damage caused by the Mercedes factory defect. |
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Driver accellerated tire to extremely high speeds with minimal traction present causing high friction and heat in the tire resulting in failure of the tire. The proper action to take when a tire is spinning due to lack of traction is to reduce throttle and/or change the conditions at the wheels to increase traction. Unfortunately, people frequently lack the education or experience to make the correct decisions when driving. Blaming Mercedes for a exploding tire is a just another example of a person failing to take responsibility for their actions in today's blame and litigation prone society. Thankfully this incident did not result in any injuries.
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Replying to: moparbad (Mar 18, 2007 9:37 am) Perhaps you did not read the forensic expert report posted on the web site. Read the engineering report and learn something about modern traction/stability control systems. You can look up his resume at www.robsonforensic.com; but he is far and away an unbiased expert on the subject. The explosion occurred in 5-10 secs after applying positive throttle. This could have happened to anyone, including you. There was simply no time for a driver reaction. The bottom line is the car was not moving because of a single high centered wheel. However the stability control module thought the car was traveling 20KPH (recorded in vehicle diagnostics log) so it inappropriately applied all engine torque the single, free-spinning wheel. Somewhere between speedometer indicated speeds of 35 and 50MPH (x4 = 140-200MPH), the 130MPH rated tire exploded from extreme centrifugal loading. The car should have applied the brakes to the wheel as soon as it's rotational speed was 3 MPH greater than the opposing wheel. This is according to Mercedes technical documents. Had the car functioned as designed, the event would not have occurred. Why is that so hard to understand?
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Replying to: ncrews (Mar 18, 2007 11:02 am) |
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What ever happened with the R320? did m-b buy it back? did they settle out of court? who's fault was it? i have been trying to follow this story.
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Replying to: zombiereef (Dec 18, 2008 12:18 pm) |
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| i am really curious because i have seen the car and wow! that is all i can say. it blew the curtain airbags, shredded the l/r fender, the front bumper is hanging off of it, the l/r door is mangled, l/r quarter panel is hit, sunroof panel broken, driver's door damaged and of course it has a spare where the aftermarket pirelli used to be. the tire wasnt factory. they put the pirelli scorpions on shortly after purchasing. | |
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