Which is safer?

[v1paul]

Which is safer, a Land Rover Defender with its solid chassis and huge weight or a Fiat 500/Toyota Aygo/any other city car you can think of with their NCAP ratings and crumple zones etc?

[jayfish]

the later, 5th gear did a frontal crash test with an older volvo and a modern c-segment (forget which) car, the volvo driver would have died or at least lost his legs, the other driver wouldn't have had an engine on his lap.

[ZOLLAR]

Is the Land rover crashing into the aygo etc?

[TTwiggy]

I'd imagine what it depends a lot on what they hit.

If the two examples above had a crash together, then the Land Rover would likely ride over the smaller car, making the 4x4 the safer place to be.

If they both hit an immovable object, then I could see how the safety features of the more modern car might be better.

[Mr Will]

jayfish said:

the later, 5th gear did a frontal crash test with an older volvo and a modern c-segment (forget which) car, the volvo driver would have died or at least lost his legs, the other driver wouldn't have had an engine on his lap.

I remember hearing (can anyone confirm?) that the volvo was missing it's engine at the time of the test, so it wasn't exactly a fair comparison.

[garethj]

It's safer not to crash. Not sure why more people don't choose this option tbh?

[CraigyMc]

v1paul said:

Which is safer, a Land Rover Defender with its solid chassis and huge weight or a Fiat 500/Toyota Aygo/any other city car you can think of with their NCAP ratings and crumple zones etc?

This is a crap question because it depends what you're crashing into.

As an extreme example, imagine a 50 ton tank driving into an aygo. Aygo driver dies, tank driver may not even notice.

Now imagine the same tank driving into a massive, solid, concrete wall. Tank driver goes from 30mph-0 in no time and no space at all. Tank driver does not survive.

Aygo drives into same concrete wall at the same speed, the front crumples and driver gets away alive.

C

[paoloh]

CraigyMc said:

v1paul said:

Which is safer, a Land Rover Defender with its solid chassis and huge weight or a Fiat 500/Toyota Aygo/any other city car you can think of with their NCAP ratings and crumple zones etc?

This is a crap question because it depends what you're crashing into.

As an extreme example, imagine a 50 ton tank driving into an aygo. Aygo driver dies, tank driver may not even notice.

Now imagine the same tank driving into a massive, solid, concrete wall. Tank driver goes from 30mph-0 in no time and no space at all. Tank driver does not survive.

Aygo drives into same concrete wall at the same speed, the front crumples and driver gets away alive.

C

That is a crap answer.

[Colin 1985]

As I understand it they do these ratings by crashing them into deformable structures, I think it would be a good idea to add, say an additional 2 stars for a 'relative' test where by they crash the car into a structure representing the average vehicle on the uk road.

I understand that if a light modern 5star car crashes into a bridge support its going to come off better than an older larger car, but in a head on small vs large the larger car is going to have an advantage that NCAP doesn't take into account.

Or I might be totally wrong?

[Colin 1985]

garethj said:

It's safer not to crash. Not sure why more people don't choose this option tbh?

Sometimes other people choose for you.

[garethj]

Colin 1985 said:

Sometimes other people choose for you.

That's where the skill comes in. Avoiding your own accidents is fairly easy, avoiding other people's is much more difficult but not impossible

[10 Pence Short]

If you're driving each of them into something big and solid (like a tree, for example), I'd much rather be in an Aygo than a Defender. If I had to be in one as it collided into the other, I'd probably go for the heavier of the two.

[mcflurry]

v1paul said:

Which is safer, a Land Rover Defender with its solid chassis and huge weight or a Fiat 500/Toyota Aygo/any other city car you can think of with their NCAP ratings and crumple zones etc?

I'd rather be in the Aygo. The safety cell means the energy is disapated (sp) around the driver. The solid chassis of the Landy means the crash forces will transfer into the occupants.

[stewy68]

Mr Will said:

jayfish said:

the later, 5th gear did a frontal crash test with an older volvo and a modern c-segment (forget which) car, the volvo driver would have died or at least lost his legs, the other driver wouldn't have had an engine on his lap.

I remember hearing (can anyone confirm?) that the volvo was missing it's engine at the time of the test, so it wasn't exactly a fair comparison.

I couldn't comment on the engine being there or not, but I vividly remember the so-called intrusion in the Volvo was nothing more than a few bits of plastic that had dislodged from below the dash with nothing substantially harmful like they suggested.

[hairykrishna]

5th gear Modus vs 940. It's about 5 minutes in when they actually get on with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3ygYUYia9I

[TEKNOPUG]

hairykrishna said:

5th gear Modus vs 940. It's about 5 minutes in when they actually get on with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3ygYUYia9I

WTF??!! Errr.....no engine in the Volvo, so that's a realistic test then....more utter bks from the 5th Gear clowns....

[louismchuge]

god not this again

[ukzz4iroc]

louismchuge said:

god not this again

god not someone saying that again

[louismchuge]

ukzz4iroc said:

louismchuge said:

god not this again

god not someone saying that again

ah yeah, clever. I see what you did there!

[ctallchris]

v1paul said:

Which is safer, a Land Rover Defender with its solid chassis and huge weight or a Fiat 500/Toyota Aygo/any other city car you can think of with their NCAP ratings and crumple zones etc?

Closest comparison i saw was a collision between a old disco and an espace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIKu1UDoa6s

the espace is a 5 star car so has similar rigidity to a 5 star aygo.

the mark 2 disco weighs in at 2150kg to the espace's 1490kg (land rover 44% heavier) (weights from parkers)

In the defenders Kerb weight is 1756kg (landrover site) the iq's is 890kg + 90 + 40 = 1020(car + driver + fuel as land rover measuer weights) 72% heavier

It really depends how far the defendesrs chassis has been updated since the video was taken.

In the video the renault driver would have walked away while the driver of the land rover would have lost their legs. In the iq / defender scenario the IQ should be similarly stiff but the defender has a greater weight advantage over the aygo. so it would probably be a cloase run thing. I wouldn't like to be in either car really.