Crash test 1959 vs 2009

[Des]

Can we have a Chevy Matiz V Impala next please?

Somehow I've survived a couple of decades driving with no airbags or pre-tensioner type stuff without getting myself killed to death or anything, so I'm probably pushing my luck and I should seek out some great fat bloated round turd of a thing from Germany and hope to suppress the inevitable suicidal feelings.

[ShiteRider]

i was reading this thread earlier today whilst having a fag in the yard at work, anyone want to see some modern smashed up shit people walked away from?

[ShiteRider]

I'll take the lack of response as a yes (said the perv to the unconsious girl).

13 plate transit, young-ish builder driving, right rear wheel has hit a kerb hard (real wheel drive trannie + youngster =OMGDRIFTO?), which spun the front round into a tree at an angle.

Lad did walk away......aleit with a bit of branch in the ribs, it still drives aswell as i backed it off the wagon and then used it to "reposition" the next one.

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[ShiteRider]

Peugeot 206 (obvs), story is it also hit a kerb, which some how ripped half the underside off, and then was launched into a lampost side ways. The guy walked away from this, most likely with very empty bowls.

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[Mr Lobster]

If I'm going to have an accident I'd rather have it in a new car than an old one. I'm very aware that if I have an accident in my r4 then it is going to hurt. Lots.

 

But I'll take the risk and do my best not to crash.

[twosmoke300]

Bugger me , imagine being in the osr seat in the 206

[chaseracer]

No.  Thanks all the same...

 

[Impmadman]

I had a 2cv years ago, I had a old lady on a mobility scooter crash into it and wrote my car off!

[Partridge]

Watch the video carefully. It looks like the older car has its engine romoved. 5th Gear did the same with the Volvo V.S Modus test. But in this case, I'd still rather be in the 2009 car.

[Formula Autos]

It's like this Focus crash, i wonder what happens when you crash in to a solid wall at 120 mph?.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dI5ewOmHPQ

 

You die. Deep down, we all instinctively know this.

 

Even in a new car with NCAPs coming out of its arse, if you hit a concrete motorway bridge support at 70 - the legal limit - you will most likely die. The concrete is nigh-on immovable, and cars are (usually, at best) only made of sheet steel full of voids for passengers and running gear to fit in.

 

As others have said, avoiding an accident in the first place is the best plan. Not driving like a tit, one-handed, with an iPhone held to your ear, would be a good start - but many drivers on UK roads don't seem to grasp this.

[vulgalour]

This one time, I reversed into a house in what is essentially a 70s car.  The wall of the house didn't fall on me and I didn't die.

[Squire_Dawson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=bFl5pEe-7uo#t=200

 

Who says old cars aren't safe? That ain't a robot rolling it either.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Watch the video carefully. It looks like the older car has its engine romoved. 5th Gear did the same with the Volvo V.S Modus test. But in this case, I'd still rather be in the 2009 car.

 

Here's the Bel Air's engine bay. The car in the crash test had the inline 6, look at all the space on either side. In an offset collision, the other car was not going to be troubled by the engine. 

 

 

They also had an X shaped chassis which undoubtedly encouraged a grizlier wreck, to quote myself:

 

I do not believe the choice of a BelAir was accidental. No 1959 car would have come out of that better than the 2009 car, but I think they chose one which they knew would create the most dramatic looking wreck. A silent video of a disintegrating BelAir is far more effective than a film where the 1959 car holds up reasonably well but needs a voiceover explaining the subtitles of crash physics when applied to the human body.

What cause would Fifth Gear have to remove the engine from the Volvo? Go buy the biggest 80s/90s Volvo you can find and crash it into another car, it'll perform in a similar way.

 

A 36 mph offset collision between a 745 and a VW van. 

[chaseracer]

Shall we agree to disagree on the Volvo issue...? 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Let's have a modern joust - we'll drive into each other, you in a Volvo, me in a Modus 

[Des]

That pic needs a speech bubble for the van saying 'NOM NOM NOM'.

[rml2345]

Going by the ripples in the roof structure that VW van isn't having a good time of it either...

Volvo 700/900 cars were very safe for their time but it was designed 30 years ago or more and it won't come off as well as a modern blob with advanced computer modelled deformable structure and 7 airbags. Same as crashing a 740 into one of the 60s safest cars would show up any deficiency. Ever since Ralph Nader and grisly car accident photos safety has become an actual selling point so manufacturers are keen to develop something that keeps mushy customers from being splattered and their relatives suing the car manufacturer for building a shonky death trap.

Still say luck has massive part to play in these things.

[garethj]

i was reading this thread earlier today whilst having a fag in the yard at work, anyone want to see some modern smashed up shit people walked away from?

I'm not sure there's much you can learn from this kind of thing, people have been saying the same since cars were invented, as that Chrysler video shows.  My parents got the AA magazine in the '80s and it seemed like every month there was someone writing in saying how strong their Skoda was after crashing it down a ravine.

 

Most people survive by relying on 1. Don't Crash and 2. Be lucky.  If that silver 206 driver had hit the pole 12 inches further forwards the whole car would look like a toddler's red painting.  If the Transit driver had been going 5mph faster it would have been curtains for him.

 

As said, new cars are safer if you hit something.  But if people were that concerned about safety then ROSPA and IAM would be fully booked with people wanting to make their driving safer.  I don't think they are, it's just latching onto car maker's hype and justifying what they've spunked 20 grand on.

 

Same as the spurious reasons we come up with for driving old tat

[Split_Pin]

My biggest worry is if someone crashes into me at 50 or 60, say a drunk driver for example. Pretty much nullifies the argument for staying safe by simply not crashing eh??

[scooters]

My biggest worry is if someone crashes into me at 50 or 60, say a drunk driver for example. Pretty much nullifies the argument for staying safe by simply not crashing eh?

 

you've a greater chance of being run over.

 

Life is about risk, life without risk isn't life. I'm not talking about bungee jumping, speeding in a T5 etc. But everything we do has some risk.

 

I have to write detailed and involved risk analyses documents weekly, we work in live LPG sites where 500 tones of high pressure LPG are stored - we use machinery and tools within these 'hot' zones. In australia 20 years ago 15 tonnes of LPG escaped from a store and the resultant fireball was a kilometer in diameter. If you make a mistake the next thing you will be doing is either playing a harp or getting a poker rammed up your jacksay. Every outcome of everything we do on site is - massive loss of life - X00 or x000's. To manage risk you look at what you do, analyse specific risks and negate them by altering your process. The idea is to get it to an acceptable level.

 

In life it is the same. I used to ride a motor scooter - I don;t anymore because I have kids and they need me. I used to smoke, I don;t any more because of the same reason.

 

If I have to drive the family to surrey from scotland I will typically take the family car which is usually the most modern one.

 

If I do take my kids in the Land Rover Series then it is typically a local journey with in 40mph

 

Yes, you can be hit by another driver but you can also be squashed by a tree, blown up by a terrorist of hit by a lightening bolt from the gods. How you choose to protect yourself from this is up to you but personally I would rather stick a red hot needle up my japs eye than drive an Evoque just because it has a few Ncap stars!

[DodgyBastard]

My favourite Volvo video is this,

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6prtCtxk1ho

[scooters]

Hey - that's a t5, maybe we should do the same thing with my T5 - an "autoshite crash test"?

 

OK - who volunteers to drive? Bags not me!

[scooters]

My favourite Volvo video is this,

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6prtCtxk1ho

did anyone else notice the LPG filler point in the rear offside side bumper...  they MUST have disconnected it

[Paul Dupart]

The Benny Hill music made that video!

[Partridge]

I can't remember why I thought 5th Gear took the engine out of the Volvo, but I remember thinking "hmmmm" at the time. Something wasn't right about it but I can't be bothered to watch the video again.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

scooters reference to LPG and risk assessment reminded me of this genius;;

 

He'd just filled his 607 with LPG , he thought the smell of gas was leftover from filling, then' I fancied a cigarette' ..............

[fordperv]

On the talk of crashing volvos, in the 90s mrs fordpervs grandad was travelling on the a50 at around 50mph in his 940 estate when a lorry pulled out of the petrol station straight onto the carriageway, he swerved to try and avoid the truck but it was already too late, collision happened, safe to say he walked away very shaken, the police attended and they proclaimed that the only reason he hadn't expired was he was driving a Volvo

 

He thanks his lucky stars for that old barge

[Mr Livered]

^Sometime in the 90s I remember my dad driving under a lorry trailer in his 740 estate (it was dark, and he says he hit it side-on). Looking at the wreck afterwards, the fact the A-pillars were still more or less upright was pretty impressive.

 

He had been test-driving Range Rovers but after the accident he reasoned that if he'd had exactly the same accident in a taller car, he'd have been finished because he would have slapped into the trailer chassis instead of sort of collapsing under it. So he replaced it with a 960.

[charlie2555]

[dollywobbler]

On the talk of crashing volvos, in the 90s mrs fordpervs grandad was travelling on the a50 at around 50mph in his 940 estate when a lorry pulled out of the petrol station straight onto the carriageway, he swerved to try and avoid the truck but it was already too late, collision happened, safe to say he walked away very shaken, the police attended and they proclaimed that the only reason he hadn't expired was he was driving a Volvo

 

He thanks his lucky stars for that old barge

 

On the other hand, the Police can be twats as well. A friend of mine had a really bad smash in her 2CV. A BMW came through the central reservation of a dual carriageway, smashed into the rear door, and the 2CV then barrel rolled AND cartwheeled, eventually landing on its wheels. It was comprehensively destroyed. My friend walked away with barely a scratch. The Police told her to get something safer! 

 

I'm not going to say 2CVs are safe, as that's a bit like saying Jordan is clever, but luck is very much part of the crashing game. A few inches further forward and she would have been a gonner.