E Class safest in the USA

So I guess this really isn't about vehicle safety per se. The death rate would also reflect the habits of the drivers of vehicles. People who own a new e class are probably older in general and thus have learned that it is bad to bump into things...

Yes, and keep in mind that that's how insurance rates for a particular vehicle are determined. It's why the insurance on a $20K Mitsubishi Eclipse is more than on a $60K E500,

How do safety tests take account vehicle weight?

If a 1500 kg Mercedes E sedan does hit some 1000 kg japanese tiny car it is quite different from testing both cars by driving them to a concrete wall.

Reg: Harri

The US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests cars in typical and worst-case collision scenarios. I believe they were one of the first organizations to rate cars with offset crashes (reflecting real-world collisions). They also have upgraded their side-impact tests to reflect how well cars withstand side impacts from large SUVs. Vehicles that handily passed the previous tests designed to simulate impacts from other passenger cars no longer did so well in the revised test.

Typical midsized SUVs mass close to 2000kg and large ones can mass 3000kg.

--Paul

Some years ago I saw a lab crash-test report with seven or eight similarly-sized cars tested, including BMW 520, Merc 200 and Volvo. BMW and Merc were about equal (can't remember which came tops), followed by Volvo. The Opel/GM and Japanese cars came way lower.

However, the results were, of course, specific to the models tested and have little bearing on current cars. Merc still scores well in lab crash tests. Don't know about 'real-world' performance.

We're talking injury to occupants here, not cost of repair/replacement, which is what the insurance companies need to know.

DAS

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