On two occasions (once from a stop and once while moving at 30 mph) I have pressed the gas pedal to the floor to accelerate quickly and the car has malfunctioned. Both times the electronic stability control immediately became disabled, the ESC warning indicator lights came on, and the engine stopped responding to my pressing the gas pedal. I was able to maintain forward movement but I could not accelerate. I could press the pedal to the floor without the RPM gauge needle moving. There was a real danger of being hit from behind when this happened because I was slowing down unexpectedly. I pulled to the side of the road, turned off the car, and restarted if after about 6 seconds. Once I restarted everything returned to normal. I have never had a car in which I lose the ability to control speed by pressing the gas too hard. I am told it is some type of "safety" feature to protect the transmission ("limp home mode") but I find it to be very dangerous. I would rather destroy a transmission and have the car respond to my commands then have a computer decide to turn off the accelerator while I am driving and risk a rear end collision. I see some similar comments about this on the intranet for Mercedes.

- Bethpage, NY, USA