VW Golf vs 4x4 crash test

BrianD3

I've just found a head-on crash test between a VW Golf Mk5 and a Volvo XC90 and a Kia Sorento. The page in in Austrian but with the diagrams and pictures it's easy to get an idea of what's happening http://www.oeamtc.at/netautor/html_seiten/crashtest_kopfankopf2004/kopfankopfdetail.html

Despite the Golf being a Euro NCAP 5 star car with all the latest safety gear, it still comes off pretty badly in a crash with an XC90. The Golf driver would live but would have have serious chest and leg injuries. The Volvo driver would come away virtually unhurt.

In the same crash with the Kia, the Golf driver would come away in slightly better shape. But interestingly the Kia driver would only come away slightly better than the Golf driver despite the Kia having a weight advantage of 700+ kg. So that just shows that some 4x4s are not as safe as some people think they are. Not only are they very "aggressive" in collisions with more vulnerable vehicles, they're not necessarily that safe for their own occupants either.

Still, things are better than they used to be. I read about a crash test a few years back where a Nissan Patrol was crashed into a Golf Mk3. The Golf was badly crushed and the driver would have died. The Patrol looked in much better shape outwardly but because of its poor impact absorption and restraint systems, the driver would have been dead also (killed by a massive blow to the head from the solid steering column)

PS all the above crashes occured with the vehicles travelling at around 30 - 35 mph. It makes you think - next time you see some dizzy "soccer mom" coming towards you in her XC90 and distracted by her flock of kids in the back be very afraid!

BrianD3

Edit: link should work now, full stop at end of URL was the cause

Turner

HTTP 404 - File not found
Internet Explorer



Link no worky

Merrion

If you want a 4x4 for safety, get a Land Rover 110 ...

FX Meister

Originally posted by Chief---
HTTP 404 - File not found
Internet Explorer



Link no worky

Yes it doesy!

impr0v

Pity the mpgs aren't available showing the impacts in real time.

That kind of damage at 30-35mph is scary. I'd imagine if you showed people the slow motion footage and asked them to estimate what speed the crash occured at, they'd guess closer to 55-60. I'm as guilty as anyone else in this regard, but I don't think people fully realise the disintegration that their vehicle would suffer in a 55-60mph crash. The descriptions in the papers of the crash in Donegal where the three people were killed a week or two ago when the car hit the bridge parapet at speed were horrifying.

BrianD3

The motoring programme 5th gear actually carried out a 60 mph crash test between a Volvo 940 and a BMW E34 5 Series. Both cars were doing 60 mph before the offset head on impact. The damage was horrendous with massive intrusion and destruction of the passenger compartments. Had there been anyone (even back seat passengers) in either of the cars they would almost certainly have died. There's footage of the test here:
http://www.racingflix.com/getvideo.asp?v=755

You need to register and it's a 50 MB download, still I think it's something every driver should be forced to watch.

BrianD3

impr0v

downloading now.
4.8 KB/sec :dunno:

robbie1876

Ooer! Ah well, I'm still looking forward to my new Pajero next week. Apparrantly they are pretty safe vehicles.

Turner

Is there any crash tests recorded at higher speeds say 80mph-120mph. Would be interesting to see and may slow down some of the fools in this country who travel at 80mph+ on national primary roads.

Tommy Vercetti

Originally posted by Chief---
Is there any crash tests recorded at higher speeds say 80mph-120mph. Would be interesting to see and may slow down some of the fools in this country who travel at 80mph+ on national primary roads.

Fifth Gear did a piece about motorway pile-ups, which featured several collisions between a car at 70mph hitting stationary vehicles. iirc one was a Fiat Uno which was completely destroyed, the wheelbase was reduced to inches, another was an older Merc which had relatively little damage to it. They are usually repeated on Discovery channel now and again. It's a pity they don't have the budget to use new cars, I'd be interested to see the difference that NCAP has made.

impr0v

That 60mph crash certainly makes you think. The wrecks look a lot more like the ones featured on the news every week than the results of 30-35mph tests. The In-car camera view is one I definitely hope never to see for real.

(For anyone who wants to look at the test it's hosted here for a while. Right Click and save as, as it's 50 megs. There are crap speeds available from the original site, so that you will cough up for their premium servers.)

K2

the 5 gear programme is quite good for showing how poor most cars are in the event of crashes. The pile up re-enactment was very scary, they also showed at another time what happened to a land rover (5yo) when it had to suddenly swerve around another car at 40mph, it rolled twice!

A lot of people not only overestimate their cars and their ability to deal with problems on the road, but they also don't realise how easily their cars will come apart at the seams in the event of a crash at moderate speeds (35 - 45mph). I suppose it all comes back to driver education, as mentioned by BrianD3, all learners should have to watch various videos showing the end result of bad driving.

Kaskade

5th Gear also did a roll over test with a 4 x 4 and it went over very swiftly, whereas with a saloon car in the same test they couldnt manage to roll it at all.

They had an american statistic that said you were much more likely to die in a 4 x 4 because of the high possibility of it rolling over

Scarey stuff

Sleipnir

Of course, 4x4's are notorious is a crash. The front of 4x4's are obviously higher than the front of an ordinary car and so ride up over the crumple zones of cars, across the bonnet and into the cabin.

and don't even start me on bull-bars. Soccer mom's really need those. So do business men obviously.

Praetorian

Thanks Improv!