I keep hearing this Mercedes commercial where they say: "We engineered the car to stop within X seconds." And every time I ask myself "Why is that important?" Isn't it more important that the car stops within Y feet instead of X seconds? Can someone enlighten me how stopping within X seconds is meaningful or important?

 

Neither one is right. The true measure of the ability to stop the car is an acceleration in the negative direction (aka. deceleration, to a non-engineer). This is measured in distance per time squared, not in units of time alone or in units of distance alone.

 

First off, they don't target commercials at engineers. If they did nobody else would "get it".

I suspect the reason Mercedes talks about brake performance in terms of time is because most people would be unimpressed with the distances involved. Your average ignorant driver has no idea that it will take him 170 or more feet to stop from 70. Thats over half a football field! Stopping in x seconds just sounds a lot more impressive to the average joe and jill.

 

 

Marketing, and as mentioned above its about reaching the masses

 

To Mercedes owners, time is money.

 

Ok Bill, here is a rarity a POTD award in vintage congrats! for the uninformed POTD is an award given out daily in NE for an aloof , insightful or otherwise just hysterical post put up sometime during the day by an NE member. Sometimes traditions transfer nicely to other forums it fit great on this post

 

Just remember if you have a car that will out stop every other car you increase the probability that you are going to get rearended!! Nothing makes me change lanes faster than a car with a smashed front end in my mirror.

 

Nice.

Defensive driving, a concept that seems to elude many, many people... I think BTW motorcycle riding developes defensive driving techniques to the ultimate level, which is why I love to ride.

 

It is nice to know your vehicle ... have a comparative indication of its braking capability. Gives you some confidence, especially when you are braking at the track. A lot more marketing attention is paid to (0-60) acceleration times in seconds, so you might also ask if those figures are meaningful or important.

edit