Chinese Man Vows to Only Drive Cars Built in China After Crashing Mercedes S350
Earlier this December, Wang Zhan, a man in Luoyang, Henan Province of China, organized a press conference beside the banks of the Yellow River, aka the Mother River of Chinese people, where he vowed to only use goods made in China for the rest of his life. On June 5th, Wang's Mercedes-Benz S350 rear-ended a DongFeng van. None of the S350’s airbags deployed, which resulted in Wang and his daughter visiting the hospital after the crash.
Wang then contacted Zhengzhou Star, the local sales company and headquarters of Mercedes-Benz China, about the airbag failure he encountered, but didn't get a satisfactory answer. The banner Wang had in his hand read “Only use goods made in China for the rest of my life
Comments
Vat
The front end damage suggests it wasn't an appropriate accident for the airbags to go off. Judging by the fact he's able to stand up and whinge about it, the car made a fair call.
Still, if he puts his Jiangling Landwind up the back of a truck, we won't hear the whinging.
Shiv
The irony is thick.
The Stig
Boy if he didn't like how his Benz handled an accident, wait until he wipes out one of the Chinese made cars......
SAAB95JD
Maybe he should look into the Brilliance B6 crash tests as a test of how the Chinese look at safety. From the looks of the crash of his M-B the shock towers were not moved (good structure) and therefore seatbelts were enough to preserve the occupants. There is something to think about: If he buys something Chinese made and smashes into another van we will not have to hear him complain anymore.
Here is a link to the B6 crash test on www.youtube.com :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F06LjugtIUo
Mike
There won't be a press release when he crashes the Chinese made car... he'll be dead!
Shiv's got it right. The irony is indeed thick!
JohnD
I agree with Mike, and Shiv.
mbslrm
There doesn't seem to be any structural damage or damage to the passenger compartment, so I don't know why this guy is crying. Besides, the Chinese counterparts would never fare better.
jim
Any serious injury besides a checkup at the hospital?
Looks like he's perfectly healthy and the car did its job.
I love the People's logic. Emotional rallies win the day over truth, even in America too.
Jonathan Fung
Maybe it was just a consequence of the "moral hazard problem." He thought that the Benz would keep him safe, so he drove more carelessly. Now, knowing that the most Chinese cars will fare...not-as-well...he may drive more carefully. Then again, carefulness is all relative...and in China...well...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_hazard
mitaolily
什么都有
fastredzonda
Judging by the look of the vehicle, it looks like the airbags should have deployed at the scene of accident. But then again, it all depends on the speed at which the impact occured and the relative seriousness of the accident. Regardless, they should have been deployed as safety cautionary. I have watched TV journals in South Korea documenting on how high-end imports like Audi, BMW, and MBZ have come under intense scrunity because 1) they have failed to deploy its airbags at the time of collision and/or 2) engines died out at highway speeds causing serious accidents and/or 3) steering wheel becoming unsteerable because of electric failures and/or 4) vehicle abruptly acclerating forward at the turn of ignition key.
What I'm trying to suggest is that some of the high-end imports coming into this region of the world (i.e. China, South Korea, and Taiwan) may have their build quality compromised in some ways than those imported to other countries around the world. Case in point: BMW manufactures its 7-series for the Asian market in Thailand rather than in Germany or in other developed market. Just maybe, maybe, the build quality of vehicles produced in Thailand may not match other plants in Germany, which may partly explain for the incident in the aforementioned article.
Hopefully, this lends to some credibility to the guy's story in the article and to some different perspective.
Christopher
Take a look at the car. Most of the impact sensors are in the bumper area. There is no damage to the bumper and the crumple zones is pretty much intact. Hence failure of airbags to deploy. Mercedes might need to look at the car. The sudden deceleration should have trigered some safety systems that are built into the car.
The man should rejoice that the accident happened in the mercedes and not in one of the new crop of chinese cars.
OblioA
IMO:
Judging by the vehicle, the airbags would NOT have likely deployed in any car. The front bumper is barely scratched. The passenger compartment is fine.
Perhaps Wang Zhan should focus on staying off his cellphone and also focus on maintaining a safe following distance.
Seems like just another guilt-ridden rich guy in search of a cause and looking to transfer blame.
------------
reasoner
fastredzonda, vehicle can't accelerate forward at the turn of ignition key because auto trans needs to be at Park or Neutral position to allow cranking. If it were a manual trans, clutch pedal needs to be pressed, in which case the vehicle would move only when the pedal is released. So this sounds like a driver's error, as usual. These claims occur often in N. America, and NHTSA has always attributed it to the driver's error (the latest being Toyota Camry). So I don't think the OEM's put inferior quality vehicles in the mentioned Asian markets.
If you look at the crashed MB, the bumper is completely intact; probably because the Chinese made van was too high relative to S350. Airbag sensors are placed at or near bumpers, and the S350 has the whole front end in a good shape, less the right side headlamp. Only the hood is scraped up. So the airbag not deploying can happen in other cars.
Personally, I still would rather be in that car than any Chinese made car. I don't even care for Mercedes.
hwyhobo
He just may have invested in one of the Chinese manufacturers. Sorry for being cynical.
Chinese Man Vows to Only Drive Cars Built in China After Cra
[...] Wang then contacted Zhengzhou Star, the local sales company and headquarters of Mercedes-Benz China, about the airbag failure he encountered, but didn’t get a satisfactory answer. The banner Wang had in his hand read “Only use goods made in China for the rest of my life
Chinese man crashes Mercedes S350, vows to only drive Chines
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Guy
i wonder if he was wearing his seatbelt.
Bill Fong
Mercedes Benz enjoys a well earned reputation for safety world wide and with cars that are in high demand in China as well as in the US. I'm sure his fellow countrymen will say "Great! maybe I can get that Mercedes now!" And if he should buy a Chinese made car and continue this sort of driving habits, it'll be no great loss. Remember this is a country with over 1.2 billion people and one child policy that has created a disproportionate number of males to females.
Also, I think Mr. Zhan would feel perfectly at home here in the US too. After all, we have plenty of idiots that think a car's safety features should 100% protect its driver from all acts of driver error and stupidity.
detroit9000
I wonder if he bought it new. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of cars sold second-hand like that in China were stripped of air-bags, etc.
I mean, how many people in China even know what an air-bag is or how to inspect that one works? Maybe 5% of the population? Many of the car owners in China have owned cars for less than 5 years of their life.
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Claudio Angeletti
Airbags open only after severe frontal or side deceleration. None of these forces affected mr. Wang Zhan's Mercedes, so I don't see the reason of the claim.
Just have a look on the car picture: the front part and the sides are ok, only the bonnet and the windscreen were affected by the crash, in a relatively mild way; clearly, the car hit something high (like a truck) at low speed and slipped under it with a soft impact.
Sharkhead
It is not exactly a fault, but considering the premium you pay for an M-B, shouldn't the designer has considered some form of sensor to trigger the airbag by perhaps monitoring the force impact? Otherwise the manual should read, air-bag (for collision with cars only, duct if you hit a truck). I never gave a thought about this, but I will seriously be thinking of avoiding to drive behind a truck.
To be fair and in response to detroit9000, most people who visit this site are interested in autos, hence would read literature on cars, and know a bit more about the mechanism on how things work in a car. But if you were to ask anyone around yourself, and in fact in any country, I am sure the response you get if you ask them what will trigger an airbag, their response would be "in a collision". Do you seriously expect the answer to be "well, airbag is deployed under a collision when the sensors in the bumper is triggered and only if the impact is greater than XX kN, so that in a small bump scenario, the airbag will not deploy".
And just out of curiosity, how many of us check the airbag functions when we buy a car, and how many of us know how to check the airbag works, cos I don't, other than bump it before I pay and tell the agent I am testing the airbag (seriously you imagine this number to be greater than 5% of the general public).
whoflung dung
"cos I don’t, other than bump it before I pay and tell the agent I am testing the airbag"
you see all those "idiot" lights that light up when you turn on the key? well that tell you the lights are working and will warn you if something goes wrong. So say your airbag light bulb is out the car will then start sounding a really annoying tone to alert you to this fact. Read your owners manual and learn about your car, driving is a privilege not a right... Well in the US anyway. Would you operate a firearm without learning about it first? Well a car is not different.
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