This gentleman in Henan province, China, had a slight accident with a Dongfeng truck (we talked about these massive road hogs here) Mr. Wang happened to be on the 385 national highway when he found himself tailing a truck, actually, it seems like he was actually tailgating the truck, unfortunatly for whatever reasons, he crashed into the back of the truck, except not a single one of the Mercedes 8 air bags were activated. Mr. Wang towed the wrecked Merc to the banks of the Yellow River
Miraculously, Mr. Wang was not hurt from the looks of the photos, despite the car looking rather demolished. Mr. Wang has said (in his yellow banner) that from now on he will only buy domestically made Chinese goods, possibly including cars.
If it wasn’t for the 10 hour waiting time for diesel in some places I would suggest him to buy a a nice blue Dongfeng truck.
Is that Merc a local or imported one? He may be able to get a nice big check if he sues Mercedes……
Bravo furbo! Gli airbag non si sono azionati perché in un impatto così violento avrebbero causato solo più danni! Il fatto poi che non abbia riportato ferite è indicativo della qualità costruttiva delle mercedes e della procuzione europea in generale. Un incidente simile su un’auto cinese significava morire fra le lamiere!
Look how close the seat is to the wheel, Im wondering how he got out out without crushing his knees, and still manages to stand up straight with his arms over his head.
I’m no engineer but I am sure tha I read something abotu Mercedes’ airbags only being activated if the person was in teh right position for them to be effective. So if the person is too close to the steering wheel then it won’t go off, there is a risk of serious injury if you’re too close to an exploding airbag. Likewise if nobody is sitting in the passenger seat it won’t go off - I think there are sensors to detect if someone is sitting in the seat. Also why would the side or curtain airbags go off if it was a frontal collision?
Mr. Wang was driving so close to the truck’s rear that he couldn’t see the hazard ahead, that the truck was stopping for. The truck has a high rear chassis with lots of room underneath. But Mr. Wang’s car never went under far enough to hit the truck’s rear axle with the Mercedes front bumper and fenders.
There are no impact sensors in the hood, or the A pillars.
Maybe there should be.
But the A pillars obviously were strong enough to save Mr. Wang. I’m afraid that such might not be the case if he were driving a domestically made passenger vehicle.
As for the repair cost, it’ll be a lot cheaper than had he rear-ended a Hongqi limo.
If he purchases a domestic vehicle and drives the same way then he will rightfully take his place in the Darwin awards that he missed out on this time while creating a new 4 door convertible.
@ Steid
Please use English here, this site does not have automatic translator
I can tell it’s Italian…but I’m not grasping much of what he/she wrote. “something, something, something, indicative of Mercedes or European production in general. A similar accident in a Chinese car means death from…”
I’m guessing what the author said is if the person had the same accident in a Chinese car, they’d be dead.
Using translate.google.com:
“Smart Bravo! The airbags have not operated since a violent impact so would only cause more damage! The fact that you no reported injuries is indicative of the quality of constructive mercedes and procuzione European Union in general. A similar incident on Chinese car meant to die between the sheets!”
I just hate using a program to translate. I’d rather try to figure it out myself.
Well it is up to him/her to say that, people always try to find a way to justify everything, if that was a Chinese cars that airbags did not open then I don’t think this thread would be so peaceful. But no denial that Mercedes is still far better than any Chinese cars.
It is good to see that more Chinese people are supporting domestic cars, that will definitely help domestic makers a lot with more money for R&D
Does anyone know if the Chinese made Mercedes and BMW’s have passed the Chinese safety tests? If would be interesting to know.
let’s put things simple: if this man had the same accident with a chinese car, he would be dead, with his head ripped off by the truck chassis, but the airbag would have been activated by the crash of the bumpers on the rear axle.
And nobody could complain for the lack of airbag intervention… that btw in this case would have been almost useless
I saw this on another site as well yesterday. Can’t remember where now, sorry. It said that his daughter was also in the car. Now to me the car looks pretty mangled but how come neither he nor his daughter have any injuries? I suspect the whole thing is a fake.
I do not think that a BMW or Mercedes would fail the Chinese crash tests, otherwise, how do any of the Chinese brands get through them? Don’t forget the European NCAP test ratings are stringent and manufacturers like Mercedes have good ratings already.
The guy is clearly an idiot tailgating a truck and driving way too close to the steering wheel! He is very lucky to escape injury - the Mercedes saved his life. Would a Chinese branded vehicle have behaved in the same manner during the crash - difficult to say but I feel it is unlikely. It is a little suspicious that he is not injured at all though! I have to say that when I crashed my car a couple of years ago, I was completely uninjured and neither were my passengers; and I managed to write off my car!
Thank you Molotov and Zed.
I do not speak good English.
The meaning of the phrase is about what you said!
No problem - try your best!
Automatic translator - thats something to look for!
BMW and Mercedes perform well in Chinese C-Ncap, no doubt about this. ok I think this Mercedes one is just an odd one.
Hmmm - agree with the above coments about the fact he would be dead if it was not for the Merc! - Also Chinese trucks obviously do not require by law to have anti-under run bars?? - The fact that any car can get that far under a truck is worrying to say the least!
Although not an expert - I expect the airbag didn’t go off because of the nature of the accident - it would have been a low G inpact becuase the car went under the truck (de-accelerated slowly compared to hitting a solid object!), and there was no frontal (so to speak) during the collision. Interesting domestic sales technique!!!
I don’t think we need to worry about this fellow. Soon enough he will be in a car big enough and expensive enough to fit his ego. My question is why did he wreck his car for this 15 minutes of fame? Is the running for political office. Don’t get me wrong. You know how they “run”, by saying the “right thing”.
The other scenario I am working on is that he already is in office and has been ordered to drive a Chinese car (as per an article here a couple of weeks ago) and so wanted to go out (of the lux German car scene) with a SPLASH!
I assume he is going to dump the car in the river…and retrieve it once the cameras are gone.
Call me cynical, but this is some PR or PC stunt!
Obviously Mr wang did suffer brain damge to have made a bloody stupid statement like that!!
Look on any salvage site - there’s tons of cars with worse damage than this with airbags still intact. You have to set them off! If the sensors don’t trigger they don’t go off. The front bumper is still fine. The LAST thing you want is to be hit from the top/side/back and the FRONT airbags to go off.
Stupid Chinese..
The man on the picture said:He cannot trust any foreign cars anymore.He will only buy chinese cars and chinese goods from now on!Because the airbags didn’t open as they are supposed to.
I’m a chinese.But I think it’s stupid to call all the chinese stupid.It’s stupid to think other people are stupid!