I don’t know how but all time some interesting bits are finding me. I am not finding them, they always find me :) Like this time, Mercedes-Benz USA released an advertisement recently with Puff Daddy (Super Bowl Ad)! The scenario is based on Mercedes vehicles start their engine by their selves and drive to Mercedes-Benz museum. Nothing is unusual here, even the Puff Daddy is not unusual at all.
Where is the problem? The problem is with the vintage SL which we see in first couple seconds. The SL engages its automatic gearbox by itself and starts to role. This is also seems normal but technically impossible! The creative team missed one single spot. This car is equipped with an automatic gearbox and automatic gearbox is has a different gear positions. In order to move forward, you have to move the gear lever backward to D (Drive) mode. However in advertisement, the SL moves the gear lever into P (Park) mode and starts to role. In terms of mechanical engineering this is impossible!The automatic gearbox has these positions; P (Park), R (Reverse), N (Neutral), D (Drive). This is the fundamental and this is the same order for every car. I guess the creative team never noticed this positioning and they thought it was a manual gear box and let’s move the lever to forward to go forward. In reality, when you engage to Park mode, car will not go anywhere! Nothing will happen.
From this advertisement I can suggest that, this vintage SL is really old! It forgot the right position for its own gearbox :) Next time, please be careful :)
Pictures’ and Video Copyrights
Mercedes-Benz