I was going down the highway *cough* slightly above *cough* the speed limit, when my front right tire blew out. And it was a serious blow out, as you can see from these pictures.
Never had a tire blow out on me at any speed, so I’m not really sure what would have happened. I suspect the car would have been pretty uncontrollable.
That’s when the Mercedes safety stuff kicked in. First thing I know is that the red alert comes up on my dash saying tire pressure was lost (don’t recall the exact message). Then I notice the engine drop power (probably as the computer reduced the power going to the wheels). For the entire time, the steering wheel was completely responsive: no pull to either side. I didn’t slam on the brakes (they say not to in a blowout, but I didn’t know that until later), but the brakes were working normally (no pull to either side). As I quickly gathered my wits, slowed down and pull over to the right lane, I notice a slight bumpiness on the right side of the car (which I later discovered was because the tire had pretty much completely deflated because so much of the side wall was gone). Words cannot express my gratitude and amazement at how the Mercedes safety systems worked! You can only tell how safety systems work when it actually deploys, and in this case it was spectacular!
After pulling over, I called used their Tele-Aid system (like GM’s OnStar). Sadly, their Tele-Aid system failed me. I was in an area where their in-built phone system had no signal! I had to resort to my AT&T iPhone (which had 5 bars!) to call Tele-Aid.
All up, it took 30 minutes for their Roadside Assistance guy to come. Great service, changed my tire out in under 10 minutes, and pointed me to the nearest tire shop.
Because the spare tire is for “emergencies only”, it is only rated for a top speed of 50mph. So I had a leisurely ride to America’s Tire Co which was the only nearby company that had my tire in stock (that’s one of the problems of having low profile sports tires… very few people stock them!).
Hours spent getting everything fixed … 4 New front-right tire … $343.13 Getting to live another day because of Mercedes Benz safety … priceless!
Holy crap! Glad to hear you’re ok.
PHEW! I am so glad that you’re ok!
HALLELUJAH!!!
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