Thread: Merc G-Wagon in Aus again?

Benz,Volvo,Saab all do thier own testing,Volvo has a testing centre bigger than the Aust federal one,Benz also buy back vehicles that have been in real accidents as well to see how they performed,They are 3 of the safest makes you can buy so make of that what you will.Crash tests now don't mean much anyway as they changed the rules this year so vehicles get stars on what they have fitted as far as safety features not how they do in a crash.I had a VW Polo 12 years ago that was a 5 star vehicle but now it would only rate 3 as it doesn't have stability control or driver assist or any of the other totally useless bits of safety equipment. Pat

Sorry to drift back to the topic
Regardless of it's safety features, it does look capable vehicle.
Ladder chassis, solid axle, difflocks x3, v6 diesel or v8 petrol.

V8 is 83K US

I quite like the old G wagons.

(PS I don't care how safe they are. I'd buy a volvo if I wanted safety!)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWvDKH1Y7QU"]YouTube - Deep Water[/ame]

Originally Posted by inside

What do you suggest instead? Each manufacturer do their own testing? There's so many variables in crashes that you can not realistically expect a manufacturer to cover them all. What we have is controlled testing in a controlled environment done by a third party who has no vested interest if your car is 3 or 5 stars. From this testing you can gain a basic understanding of how a vehicle will perform in a crash by seeing how the vehicle crumples and in some cases how it reacts to side impacts. Certainly not perfect but what other options do you have? You need it to be standardised for comparisons but then in life there's no such thing as a standard crash.

I am not suggesting that the testing be replaced, what I am suggesting is that buyers should not just take the results at face value. One area that receives very little publicity is the analysis of real world accidents. Some manufacturers do use this information, but there is no pressure on them to do anything except improve the test results.

And talking about analysing real world accidents, the statistics analysed by Monash university show that the crash tests are only very tenuously related the actual number of people killed or injured per 100,000 kilometres in the real world. This seems to be because other factors (primarily the type of driver that chooses that type of car) are more important. As an example, relevant to this forum, the Subaru WRX kills far more people per 100,000km than does the Landrover Defender, despite having far superior crash test results and safety features. I think that a moment's reflection will make it obvious why this is the case, and it is not because it is a small car versus the a large car - it is because it goes a lot faster than the Defender, and hence is likely to be bought or stolen by the sort of driver who wants to go a lot faster; it would not even occur to them to consider a Defender!

John

Sleepy,
I do like the look of the vehicle and am sure it will be more than capable. I do not like the side steps though also do not like the look of the bumpers. In the hands of typical Australians perhaps these issues could be resoved. I can visualise a small bull or nudge bar and either just get rid of the steps or place on sliders, "one's with style of course" after all it is a Merc.

cucinadio,
Good vidio. I have been is water like that just around from AIMS here and did drive my defender similar in the water, albeit with windows up as the marsh flies were herendous.

Now is that the fellow that compared the Tojo with drawers in the back to a Defender? Boy is he down on L/Rover. Should he have swapped the vehicles around and driven the Defender as he did the Merc I would suggest the outcome would be the same. On the rocks the method he uses is as the Hummer push do to overcome crossed axels. This is a good method to use where you do not have diff locks. I would have thought the Merc would have centre diff locks and then there would be no need to do the brake and power.

All in all a nice looking car.

Regards,
PeterW

I'll take one thanks... Diesel.... In Grey

Just for the record.... I reckon that video clip sending up the ANCAPS is hilarious....... I'm very serious about that