The Mercedes A-Class W168
The car was first produced in 1997 and was named the W168 A-Class. It was the very first front wheel drive passenger car from the German car maker. The Mercedes-Benz is not used to making cars with a front engine and front wheel. But today, Mercedes has made lots of vehicles with more than a million cars sold worldwide with those features.
The Mercedes car has a new system called the frontal-impact absorption system and this is also known as the "Sandwich". It is also seen on both DE4326 9 and DE4400132 patents. Wikipedia.com says, “In the event of a violent frontal impact, the engine and transmission would slide underneath the floor below the pedals rather than entering the passenger compartment.”
However, everything went to waste after it underwent the traditional "moose test" by the Swedish automobile publication Teknikens Värld. That was when it became infamous. The report says, the moose was overturned but the car maker denied the problem. However, Mercedes took a step to recall all the 2,600 units of their cars as well as “suspending distribution until the problem was solved by adding electronic stability control and modifying the suspension”, Wikipedia.com informs. Then the stability control on small cars premiered. The Mercedes A-Class W168 was voted to be the worst -handling car in Britain in the Top Gear Survey 2007.
