aisraeltax
New member
Criteria #1:
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx
Criteria #2 and #3:
http://www.safercar.gov/
Criteria #4 and #5 are found in your vehicle owner's manual and/or by visual inspection of the vehicle. Also, the NHTSA web site (http://www.safercar.gov/) will provide some or all of this info when you look up your vehicle on their web site.
There is one other web site, http://www.informedforlife.org/ which takes the IIHS and NHTSA ratings combined with other factors and uses an algorithm to come up with a safety rating for your vehicle. The one thing you need to watch for on this site is if there aren't a complete set of ratings available for a vehicle, they will assume "average" for the result, which may not actually be the case. So, the site is best for vehicles with complete test results both from IIHS and NHTSA.
The unfortunate thing here is, your Mercedes R-class has not been tested by either the IIHS or the NHTSA. It doesn't look like Euro NCAP has any results either.
ironic, huh? one of the safest vehicles, Mercedes, isn't chosen by NHTSA for testing so it can't be put on that list? that irks me...one of the MAJOR reasons we purchased the car we did was due to safety (not saying the others aren't safe..just that ours is safe also, yk).
i haven't picked the car up yet so i haven't been able to thumb through the manual yet (i have a pdf and it's over 500 pgs. long!).
i wonder how NHTSA determines which cars they are going to test. I guess Mercedes doesn't care enough but it's too bad b/c not a lot of ppl know about that option (at around the same price as some of the others listed).
other than not being tested, it does have:
4) Must have side curtain airbags for ALL rows of seating, including the third row. Consider models that tout individual side impact sensors for all three rows of seating.
5) Head restraints and 3-point seatbelts for all seating positions.
oh well.....
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