Twenty-five years ago, an unknown Swedish journalist managed to bring the pearl of German industry to its knees. Newspapers and television across Europe showed the latest Mercedes model flipped on its side. Since then, the moose test has become a regular part of development, but also of competition. The cars perform safer during emergency maneuvers, but they have also lost something in terms of suspension comfort.
All evil is good for something, Mercedes people say today about an event that significantly influenced the development of technology and the perception of active safety. In October 1997, the editor of the Swedish magazine Teknikens Värld (World of Technology), Robert Collin, tested the new Mercedes A-Class and flipped it over to one side during an evasive maneuvering test. The photos soon traveled across Europe.
To get an idea of the reputational damage, it should be added that Áčko was no ordinary car model. Until then, the luxury brand entered the lower class for the first time with it. He was looking for customers among Volkswagen or Opel users and needed to emphasize humanity and empathy rather than success and sharp elbows.
The theme of overcrowded cities suited this. Mercedes has built a car as spacious as a Golf on the inside, but shorter than half a meter on the outside, so it takes up less space in traffic and parking. It was tall and, to protect the crew in a crash with a short nose, the engine slid under the hollow floor in a frontal impact.
The advertising campaign began an incredible four years before the car’s launch. It gradually revealed the individual advantages of the revolutionary design, endless roadshows toured European cities, and in 1995 Mercedes launched the world’s first website dedicated to the future car model.
Two weeks after the premiere, a Swedish journalist proved that the car is also revolutionary. The auto company stopped deliveries to customers, set up an emergency team, subjected the cars produced to further tests, and found that Áčko can actually behave unstable if handled extremely hard.
At the same time, the Mercedes technicians had to learn what the moose test actually is. Until then, the abrupt evasive maneuver was only attempted on one side, with the idea that you would quickly avoid a running child on the street and calmly resume your lane.
Hardly anyone in Europe knew that the moose roamed Scandinavia. That is, after an abrupt left turn, an equally abrupt return to the right side of the road follows. This makes an important difference. The right wheels are relieved twice in a row. Meanwhile, the tall car doesn’t have time to calm down, so the two inclinations add up and the body “lies on its side”. What happened to A.
Mercedes was then saved by coincidence. Shortly before, it introduced another revolutionary innovation in its larger models, the Electronic Stability Program (ESP). That is, a system that individually brakes the individual wheels against the direction of slippage or unwanted movements of the body. The more expensive models started with it, but after the elk escaped it quickly became the standard of the cheapest Аček.
The three-pointed star thus saved the public’s trust, and today we can find the whole story in the textbooks as an example of crisis management and customer friendliness. On the other hand, stopping production, modifying the chassis and installing ESP has cost Mercedes half a billion euros today.
However, only a few brands could afford to offer such advanced technology for the price of a small car. When the ESP was integrated into the Octavia I generation four years later, another 22,000 crowns were paid.
For a fee, ESP was also available in the Octavia’s more expensive sibling, the Audi TT coupe. At the same time, its lightweight rear has become lighter at high speeds and the car could roll over after removing the gas, resulting in several fatalities.
After this event, the whole story took an unexpected turn. Some German media and institutions could not stand the fact that the dirt once again stuck to the domestic brand product and began to overturn foreign cars. Autobild magazine put a large and soft Peugeot 607 sedan on two wheels, which it accompanied on the front page with the cry “Catastrophe!”.
A few years later they toured Europe images of a Dacia Logan overturned on the roof. They were bought by the ADAC automobile club. But the manufacturer did not like it, he asked for a retest and threatened to sue. The auto club instead withdrew the photos and admitted that the car actually passed the tests. It only flipped over on the next trip for the photographer.
After it even came out, that the Germans covered the Dacia with flat tires and put a spare wheel in the most exposed point. However, only those who were interested have already read it. In the mind of the German public, the Dacia remained registered as a dangerous car for the next fifteen years.
This brought the moose affair to its third act. ADAC’s secrets frightened car manufacturers and forced them to build awkward cars that couldn’t be overturned. Every technician knows that as long as you leave the suspension comfortably relaxed, you can flip any car onto the roof with the right precautions.
This approach was evident in the period from 2007 to 2013, when cars such as the Škoda Rapid, Renault Fluence or Fiat Linea arrived on the market. High space requirements and a long rear overhang combined with a simple chassis that could “wander” in a critical situation. The hard suspension prevented this, but the crew also did not rejoice in the comfort, nor journalists.
The whole story ends only in recent years thanks to the economization of fast processors. Stabilizing with them can control the forces acting on the softly suspended bodywork more sensitively and quickly.
The irony is that the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, which started it all, has since switched to a conventional low-floor hatchback layout. Not for stability, but because the tall building didn’t attract young customers.
