How safe is your car?

Squirrel

This is based on the picture of wrecks, but for the purpose of showing the cars that you own and drive in a crash. I'll start, my dad has a Hyundai Sonata 2003, never was Euro NCAP'd, so I found a pic of it in some other crash test.





It's actually quite weird seeing a car like the car you get into nearly on a daily basis in crashes, even simulated ones.

How do your cars look?

BrianD3

Those pics of the Hyundai look like they are of a US NHTSA test which is quite different and less tough than EuroNCAP tests. The US IIHS also does crash tests but its procedures are more like EuroNCAP and include an offset test. Then there's the Australian NCAP which these days tests cars the same way as EuroNCAP but a few years ago was using different (less stringent) tests.

So if anyone wants to look at how a certain car performs an it hasn't been tested by EuroNCAP try the following sites

US IIHS
http://www.hwysafety.org/ratings/default.aspx

US NHTSA
http://www.safercar.gov/

Australian NCAP
http://motoring.racv.com.au/racvm/whichcar/bestbuysarticle.cfm?ID=AFCC45D9-A62C-11D4-B8070000E8961DD1

Other crash test sites that I've found

Early nineties family cars
http://crashtest.autoboerse1.de/crash-untere-mittelklasse.html

Some interesting ones on this
http://www.oeamtc.at/netautor/pages/channel/pages/1102081.php

Tests with Mercs and Smarts
http://www.whnet.com/4x4/crashes.htmlrts

Test with VW Golf Mk2 vs Mk4, Mk2 demolished
http://leszno.edu.pl/~matt5/crash/golf.html

VW caravelle demolishes Volvo 740
http://www.251.org/volvocrash.html

Citroen 2CV
http://www.cats-citroen.net/citroen_2cv/2cv_crashtest.html

More tests
http://www.sicurauto.it/crashtest/speciali/index.php

So after all that I hope everyone drives more carefully

junkyard

I find it hard to believe that the Citroen 2CV remained in pretty good shape at a 40kph crash, any of them I towed I needed a brush and shovel.

BrianD3

The 2CV is Ok if it hits a solid object full head on at 40 km/h. A lot of that is due to the cars extremely light weight which means it doesn't have to disipate much energy. You would get a similar result if you collided two 2CVs head on both travelling 40 km/h. If you did the same test but replaced one of the 2CVs with a Merc S-class that would be a different story altogether

Victor

There is a video of a test where a truck runs into the read of a line of cars in a test. The rear of the line is a 2CV. By the time the truck passes the point where the 2CV's engine was, you can no longer see the 2CV, it implodes completely.

Squirrel

What do you drive Victor?

Victor

Squirrel wrote:

What do you drive Victor?

Why .......?

http://www.dublinbus.ie/images/about_us/dd3.jpg

unkel

junkyard wrote:

I find it hard to believe that the Citroen 2CV remained in pretty good shape at a 40kph crash

Never mind the car

Not sure what the writer of that article is on about with his ranking. The G force on the head of the driver is enough to determine if the driver survived or not

The deceleration of the drivers head was 85G in the 2CV. The drivers of the 2CV, FIAT 126, Renault 4, Renault 5 and the Beetle would have died

The drivers of the FIAT 127 and the Polo might have survived based on the Gs alone. Those were also the only two where the driver didn't hit his head against the steering column

BrianD3

Victor wrote:

http://www.dublinbus.ie/images/about_us/dd3.jpg

Cool, what model do you drive? RV? AV?

unkel

Squirrel wrote:

How do your cars look?

Haven't a clue. My car was never tested by Euro-NCAP afaik. Still feel somehow that I'd be safer crashing frontally into a 5 safety stars Renault Clio though

BrianD3

unkel wrote:

Never mind the car

Not sure what the writer of that article is on about with his ranking. The G force on the head of the driver is enough to determine if the driver survived or not

The deceleration of the drivers head was 85G in the 2CV. The drivers of the 2CV, FIAT 126, Renault 4, Renault 5 and the Beetle would have died

I'm not sure what is a fatal head deceleration for an average person. I have read conflicting numbers with values of around 65-100g. There are probably many complicating factors which need to be taken into acount. Where did you get your figures unkel?

Also the HIC values for all the cars seem pretty good.

TempestSabre

I used to have a CRX and you should see how those things disintegrate in an accident. ...shudder...:eek:

Victor

BrianD3 wrote:

I'm not sure what is a fatal head deceleration for an average person. I have read conflicting numbers with values of around 65-100g.

10g is enough to put you unconscious temporarily. Mechanical devices have a limit in the order of 50g (depends on the device though.)

BrianD3 wrote:

Cool, what model do you drive? RV? AV?

Hell no. Thats what the chaffeur is for.

seamus

Four stars...not bad

(Bigish movie, 56k beware)
http://www.sicurauto-video.it/adsl/206.mov

ds20prefecture

Oops:


This is after an encounter with a reckless leaf, travelling at the speed of gravity:

Interceptor

According to that nice German site, if I crash my Fiat into anything harder than a Weetabix box I will die. Oh well, people die in Volvos every day - I know which I prefer driving.

'cptr

TCP/IP

here is my car after a smash 4 stars not to shappy

ambro25

4 Euro-NCAP stars for the '01 MX-5 (mine's '98 though), nothing on the US sites for it (which is astounding, given the popularity of the Miata on West Coast).

Sweet FA for the Impreza ('97) anywhere :eek: - but then, they are built like tanks anyway

BrianD3

5 EuroNCAP stars for my Laguna First car to get 5 stars in fact. Here's a (big) pic
http://www.press.renault.co.uk/image_gallery/Safety/42.jpg

Also some big pics of a Laguna vs Renault Vel Satis test carried out by Renault.
http://www.press.renault.co.uk/image_gallery/Safety/38.jpg
http://www.press.renault.co.uk/image_gallery/Safety/39.jpg
http://www.press.renault.co.uk/image_gallery/Safety/40.jpg
http://www.press.renault.co.uk/image_gallery/Safety/41.jpg

Stevo11

I have a 2CV (still for sale BTW) and a Beetle... think I'll be taking it slow (not that I have a choice in the matter of course )
Steve

aodh_rua

Mine seems pretty good unless you're a pedestrian who gets in the way.

4/5 Passenger Safety
2/5 Pedestrian Safety
3/5 Child safety

The car's a mark II Audi A3.

BrianD3

Anyone see the crash test footage shown on the Late Late on friday. A Renault 25 travelling at 50 mph rear ended an 80s Ford Orion and pushed it into a Renault 18. The Orion folded up like tinfoil, the other two were fine. The Orion was severely damaged even before it was pushed into the front car and became the meat in a Renault sandwich. I took a few crappy photos of the TV showing the crash in progress, there's one attached. If this photo breaches copyright the mods can remove it.

IMO the Orion may have had rust weakening the structure to have folded up so badly. These cars were well known for being rusters. The Renault 25 was much more resistant to rust. Also other factors such as the heights of stiff structures and mass of the vehciles would need to be factored in.

unkel

Victor wrote:

10g is enough to put you unconscious temporarily

BrianD3 wrote:

I'm not sure what is a fatal head deceleration for an average person. I have read conflicting numbers with values of around 65-100g

BrianD3 wrote:

Where did you get your figures unkel?

From the voices inside my head

Seriously, I don't know. If anyone has any knowledge / links, please contribute here. I would really like to know. Somehow I would have guessed anything over 30-40g would be something a human body cannot survive. Imagine the brain, or vital organs being subjected to that kind of force :eek:

BrianD3 wrote:

Anyone see the crash test footage shown on the Late Late on friday. A Renault 25 travelling at 50 mph rear ended an 80s Ford Orion and pushed it into a Renault 18. The Orion folded up like tinfoil, the other two were fine

Don't push it now

As you pointed out the sponsorship yourself, many of us know there is no point to bring any issues with Renaults to the attention of anyone within RTE

seamus

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2004/YuriyRafailov.shtml

unkel

Thanks for the link Seamus. It is no where near conclusive for above example but I'd say the >80G alone on the 2CV and beetle would most likely have been fatal, never mind the bangings of the drivers head off the steering columns