Have you ANCAPed your car??
Submitted: Monday, Mar 16, 2009 at 20:19
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Kiwi and Grenade
Last weeks Top Gear show got me thinking about just how safe our cars really are and like the landrover (??) they had, do our 4wds live up to the standard of being bigger is safer.
So I checked grenade and she stands at a 5 star rating and so does the 80 series but my '94 honda civic is only a 3 star and mum and dads brand new focus is only 4 star. The grenade got 2 xx'x for the rating of most damage to someone else - ie....dont hit me, you wont like it!!
Sorry if this got covered last week after the show but its definetely worth looking into if you haven't!!!!
Reply By: Ozhumvee - Monday, Mar 16, 2009 at 20:42
Monday, Mar 16, 2009 at 20:42
That's like the Richard Cranium that was trying to wind me up over the Humvee having no crumple zones etc etc.
When I replied that it had plenty of them, they were the coloured things around it in the traffic he was gobsmacked!
They work too, just ask the Commodore driver that changed lanes into me at 80k, the bullbar took a few scratches when it removed the entire left hand side of the commodore from the B pillar back.
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Follow Up By: Member - JohnR (Vic) - Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 09:12
Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 09:12
Peter, you only had to see the mess the Humvee was in with the photo that Top Gear had on-screen last night. Yes, I know it is an old series and it hit another American bit of crap, but it was a MESS.
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Follow Up By: Rossc0 - Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 10:16
Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 10:16
But that was a H3 not a real Humvee and it hit a Chev pickup so guess it was american c.
Cheers
Ross
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Follow Up By: Ozhumvee - Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 17:32
Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 17:32
I thought it was a H2 as they are virtually a Chev Tahoe with a look a like body.
I've a picture somewhere of the result of a H1 and a BMW X5 after a head on at a closing speed of 140mph, the driver of the X5 was killed instantly as it broke up on impact and the driver of the H1 had a broken leg and bruises.
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Follow Up By: Rossc0 - Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 18:10
Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 18:10
Could
well have been a H2 as only saw it very briefly and the second time it was shown I was trying to work out what it had run into.
I'd not like to take on a Humvee or H1 even in the Effie.
Cheers
Ross
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Reply By: Robin Miller - Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 08:21
Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 08:21
Hi Kiwi
Ancap figures are interesting information but far from whole picture if you mission is to determine your saftey.
They are good for determining the saftey of the
population as a whole, but not your personal saftey.
In the second part of your post - the damage to other cars - is part of the story as
well , but all these figures are post crash figures and don't properly take into account the cars ability to avoid an accident in the first place.
The Ucsr figures can also be a help , but what is best is actual crash figures for cars against there total numbers and mileage.
We don't have enough good information for this but one soucre of data from RACV's satistics involving all australian crashes over many years showed that the GQ patrol which has fairly poor secondary saftey (crash saftey) had a massively higher overall saftey rating.
This was because factors such as speed , handling , visibility , rollover likelyhood etc all combine to give it a greater chance of avioding a hit in the first place , and reducing the consequences when an accident occurs.
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Follow Up By: Member - Oldplodder (QLD) - Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 08:36
Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 08:36
Robin,
Good point.
Besides passive safety, there is also active safety, such as ABS and traction/skid control, which may avoid the incident in the first place.
Being in a small nimble car may help :o)
Looking at the RACV figures about the rate a particular vehicle is involved in accidents could also reflect the average type of driving that vehicle is used for. Pajeros at one stage rated quite low for deaths compared to other 4wds, but then they may be used more in the city (lower speed crashes), and the type of driver may be a slower more cautious driver.
We all know about 'volvo' drivers, most probably one factor in why they were rated as a safe vehicle. Now volvo are marketing to a younger generation with a sportier car, wonder how the figures have changed?
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Reply By: Rangiephil - Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 17:32
Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 17:32
I am afraid that I cannot help raising this gen X/Y issue again.
The poster must never be game to ride in a bus.
They have no airbags, no seatbelts, no ROP, no curtain airbags, no ETC and many no ABS . They would have a crash rating of minus 50 .
OH SHOCK OH HORROR.
To me this safety rating stuff has escalated to mass hysteria.
What percentage of cars have accidents bad enough to trigger airbags???? And many airbag cars that have had accidents never have a new airbag fitted. So be worried.
AND as the earlier poster alluded to, when a 2 tonne 4WD hits a smaller car it is not the same as hitting a concrete barrier.
Get real and get over it.
Regards Philip A
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Reply By: StormyKnight - Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 at 22:06
Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 at 22:06
Yes real world accidents usually involve another vehicle, not an immovable lump of concrete!
We had an incident inwhich we were vehicle 3 in a two vehicle accident. Vehicle 1 hit vehicle 2 which then hit stationary vehicle 3...us...
Vehicle 2, a commodore had its boot corner shortened by about a foot as it spun into vehicle 3. Vehicle 3, a 90 series Prado with aluminuim bullbar only required to have the bullbar collapsable spaces replaced. The bar was fine & undamaged only having moved back 5mm or so.
Of course the heavier vehicle tends to always come out in front, for two reasons...
1. they are usually stronger thats why they are heavier (trucks)
2. the occupants suffer less g's on impact since their vehicle takes longer to stop after impact. The light car, stops a lot quicker & infact also gets pushed back....
Really these tests that run a car into a solid concrete barrier are really only good to compare what it would be like running into a stationary truck @ 60km/h....not exactly real life when you could hit a truck at a closing speed closer to 200km/h....
To be safer cars need to be lighter & ideally actually more equal in weight....so the forces are shared. Unfortunately thats not likely to happen when you can get 'cars' like the 200 series on the same roads as a little daihatsu...interestingly both ends of the scale are made in the same country.
The 200 series is a very safe car, but would it be thought of as 'safe' if every other vehicle was a loaded semitrailer?
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