A few comments on the Mercedes below.

"Tom L. Neal" wrote:

> In fall '97, Mercedes delayed the intro of it's narrower wheel base, quite
> upright "small car" A class, because it didn't pass the Norwegian elk
> test:  drive down the road at 60 km/hr, then swerve to avoid an elk that
> jumps out on the road.

The near fatal test for the A-class was by a Swedish mag, not Norwegian, and
it was a "Moose-test", not elk (not that it matters)

> There were a lot of jokes about the car.

One of the best: at the 1998 Geneva Salon, where MB re-introduced the modified
A-class, Volvo had the stand next to MB. High on the wall, Volvo had a Moose
head looking over the MB stand! What MB thought of this, is not said in
public.

>  It
> passed with changed the tires and the suspension. Selling a lot of these
> $25K small cars, but they're probablly still much more susceptible to
> rollover than the other Mercedes.

What MB did to make this car better, was that they installed the advanced ESP
(Electronic Stability Program) system in the car. This System is quite
expensive, and was initially being offered to the S-class sedans and coup�s.
The modified A-class is nearly impossible ti get to a roll, most journalists
have tried, including the ones that got the car to roll in the first place. It
is probably easier to get a Golf to a roll (You can get ESP on the Golf, too)
than the A-class, not to mention the Vanagon. The A-class is probably the
safest car in its class, by a wide margin. I have no affiliation with MB :-)

PerL
88 Syncro 112i (not too stable, after all)