That said, and having read the "report" from the engineer, I find it hard to swallow. All the faults read out from the car are probably from after the explosion, not before.
The conclusions being drawn, and stated as fact, is completely implausible and cannot be proven with the data presented. There is absolutely no way for an arbitrary person to say with such conviction what the software was doing without having any knowledge of the software. E.g. concluding that the "false GPS speed signal combined with 3 stopped wheels confused the system." This seems to be the heart of the argument, but is utterly unconvincing. What possible knowledge of the processing can the engineer have to draw this conclusion? It would also imply simultaneous failure of multiple systems, which is extremely improbably, especially the "false GPS speed signal", which does not rely on any mechanical movement.
As Occam's Razor states - it's probably the simplest explanation that is correct. I suspect that the car got stuck, and the driver forgot to move it out of gear before getting out of the car, the tire overheated, and now someone else must pay for the damage.
As much as I'm against big corporations taking the little people for a ride, I'd have to see much more conclusive evidence than the weak "report" to say that the car is to blame.
Here is the kicker. To argue that the report is flawed you need to come up with a better explanation. So far all I read online were gender bias and inane rants about things which are not mechanically possible on a Mercedes R-Class in good operating order, comments more suitable to older Mercedes cars and some American cars.
Unless you apply the wisdom of how it is supposed to work to the problem at hand then the cause of the damage will never be apparent.
As for the insurance company .... time wasters.
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Modz ... enjoy the difference. www.benzmodz.com
Fully loaded, 2 month old R320 explodes suddenly in our driveway during a Colorado blizzard. See the complete story and pictures at Mercedes R320 Explosion
So are you SURE this MB was not built by Ford Motor Corp?
They seem to have EXPLODING F-150's on a regular basis, too!
<tongue in cheek>
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Charles Orlando, Florida United States of America
Here is the kicker. To argue that the report is flawed you need to come up with a better explanation.
That is not a correct statement. I can argue that something is wrong without having to coming up with a correct or better explanation. It's not necessarily the most productive approach, but that's another story.
And I believe I did come up with a more plausible explanation, which had nothing to do with gender bias or old American cars
So recreate the scenario. Get an R class, hold the 3 "stuck" wheels in place and see if the other (off the ground wheel) goes really fast or is controlled by the traction contol (brakes).
Make sure someone is inside in case the doors lock.
Forward this thread to "Mythbusters". They like to blow things up. Seriously though the pictures are amazing and the actual cause should be something we all should be made aware of. I'm glad nobody was hurt.
I know how women work. I have had 2 cars I loved destroyed by women, because they just dont care about cars and believe they have infalible knowledge.
The time line in her testimony is wrong. because it goes to "While continuing to dig" she noticed the rear tire spining in reverse. It probably was. because she thought she put it in neutral but acidently pushed the stock up for too long, which would put the car in reverse.
To put the car in park you push the button on the end of the stalk.
The doors locked (an alibi her inability to put the car in park proberly, i imagine)
Emergency unlock procedure? The window rolled down? Did she dukes of hazzard it through the passenger window?
It says she obviously managed to get into the car.
The funniest part of the report is....
"When she tried to drive the vehicle again, the left rear tire exploded"
The whole report is just lost right there.
(She tried to drive and got the tires spinning for so long that they exploded.) thats what that line of the report said. a.k.a. it was her fault.
Heres how i see it.
She got stuck in the snow, tried to put into reverse and floored it (spinning the tires) and of course she might have moved a little so she kept doing. when she realizes shes stuck she gets out, forgetting to put the car in park ( mother with 3 kids has alot on her mind). She digs the rear driver side tire , remembers the "raising feature" tries it, it dosent work, she goes back to digging. Once she gets the tire free a bit, it starts spinning "all of a sudden". The tires were probably trying to spin all along. She thinks she might be able to start going. She puts it in drive and floors it till smoke is coming off the tires. Then the tire explodes in a grand fashion. You can tell the car was in drive when the tire exploded. How? The damage the tire cause to the house shows that the tire was spinning counterclockwise (from the drivers side). That shows that when it blew the tire took out the back because it was spinning in the drive direction and thats where all the energy was focused. Had it been in reverse the damage probably wouldnt have been as bad and the house wouldnt have been hit.
3 minutes of contiuous full throttle i believe is enough to blow the tires.
I know if my wife (i do have one) blew up my brand new mercedes i would do everything i could to get it fixed, including black mailing mercedes for a defective vehicle. try to hire a "un-biased" engineer who works for the my insurance company to get mercedes into a law suit. Your insurance company is hardly "un-biased" i mean someone has to pay the 25,000, better mercedes than them. hell maybe they can get a lawsuit, with bad publicity for mercedes vehicles they could get a settlement from DCX.
It's not necessarily the most productive approach, but that's another story.
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