Watch Your Car Crash

[Lemur]

This is kinda neat -- Consumer Reports has posted videos of the National Highway Safety's crash tests, helpfully indexed by model and year. So you can check out how your car does in front offset and side crashes.

I'll have you know that the lemurmobile earned a "good" rating, which is, um, good, I guess.

[HoreTore]

My Mazda 626 from '87 isn't listed....I'll take that as a sign that I'll be dead if I hit I cat on the road.

Edit: And neither was my last car, an Audio 80... But that one lost it's front wheel while I was doing 100km/h on the highway, so I guess it should be marked down as "horrible"...

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Cool I got to watch my Driver's Ed car crash. That reminds me about the time I almost got in an accident with that car when another kid was taking his exam....Man I'm glad my driver's ed teacher saved me from that kid's idiocy.

Oh yeah and a Subaru Outback isn't listed which sucks, but since everything else from Subaru is given a good rating I'll assume an Outback gets one too.

[InsaneApache]

The Mini Cooper I drive atm is rated as good. As did my last car a BMW 3 series.

Having driven for 27 years, I can say that cars are much, much safer than they were in the 70s.

Not that I crash my motor very often.

[Whacker]

Oh man oh man, that makes me wince just watching it...

[Odin]

The Mini Cooper I drive atm is rated as good. As did my last car a BMW 3 series.

How the hell does the mini cooper rate equal to a lexus? Consumer reports is pretty solid but is this meant in jest? (Lexus IS)

[InsaneApache]

Hey don't diss the Mini, it's a bloody good car. Anyway it's German now, and as the Lexus is Japanese...need I say more?

[Odin]

Hey don't diss the Mini, it's a bloody good car. Anyway it's German now, and as the Lexus is Japanese...need I say more?

Bah.

Is it produced in Germany? I thought it was a UK vehicle?

(I dont have a great reason to think that, other then the way it was marketed here, but some cheeky brit!)

[InsaneApache]

Bah.

Is it produced in Germany? I thought it was a UK vehicle?

(I dont have a great reason to think that, other then the way it was marketed here, but some cheeky brit!)

From wiki.

MINI is the name of a Cowley, England-based subsidiary of BMW as well as that of a car produced by that subsidiary since April 2001.

There you are. Any chance of a link to the annoying ad?

[Odin]

There you are. Any chance of a link to the annoying ad?

I wouldnt know where to look, it was a few years ago on channel 4, the car was painted with the union jack and the person was spoofing what I recall to be a race track where the cooper was going against a formula one car.

The man had an english accent, could be another car, but I doubt it Im fairly certain it was a cooper.

[Lemur]

For the record, Mini is an entirely owned subsidiary of BMW. The production takes place in England, but the design is pure German. Think of it as the li'lest BMW. And yes, the new Mini Cooper is supposed to have excellent safety features.

I know I posted this over a year ago, but here's an image of a new Mini Cooper and a Ford F150 after the exact same crash test. Design matters. Coop's on the left, Ford's on the right.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I'd imagine that's due more to the greater weight of the truck rather than to the design of the mini.

[Stig]

What? No Peugeot and Renault? Guess it's cars used in Yankeeland only

[Reverend Joe]

"The driver would likely suffer a skull fracture and brain injury, and possible injury to internal organs and broken bones."

Oof... hope I don't get broadsided. Front crash was rated as "good", though.

(Toyota Corolla model 2005, btw.)

[drone]

I'd imagine that's due more to the greater weight of the truck rather than to the design of the mini.

Weight (and therefore momentum) is a factor, but the structure of large SUVs and pickup trucks play a role as well. Cars are unit-body construction, built with crumple zones that absorb the crash energy and attempt to maintain the integrity of the passenger compartment. Big trucks are body-on-frame designs, necessary for off-road driving and load-carrying. The steel ladder frame design does not lend itself to absorbing energy or deforming around the passenger compartment. There can also be body/frame separation, which is serious trouble for anyone in the vehicle. Smaller SUVs these days are being built with unit-body designs, and have much better crash protection. Gasp and shock, off-road vehicles are not suited for high traffic urban areas!

Of course, Lemur's pics don't show the results from the side-impact test, I would imagine the F150 doing much better there, while the Mini would suffer due to size and low height.


My 1995 Integra is not an option, but that's OK. I know it's a death trap (especially the way I drive ).

[Banquo's Ghost]

For the record, Mini is an entirely owned subsidiary of BMW. The production takes place in England, but the design is pure German.

Not entirely German design. The new Mini takes quite a lot of inspiration from Sir Alec Issigonis' original - but certainly not crash resistance, as those things were deathtraps with a real Cooper engine.

[Major Robert Dump]

07 hyundai Sonata front impact: good, minor neck injury
side impact: acceptable, broken pelvis lol

oh well, i bought it for the warranty

[Ice]

Bah, my toyota scion tc isn't even listed.

[Devastatin Dave]

My Durango broke my foot and it appeared that my body would go under the stiring wheel. Man, time to trade it in for that mini!!!

[Blodrast]

07 hyundai Sonata front impact: good, minor neck injury
side impact: acceptable, broken pelvis lol

oh well, i bought it for the warranty

ROFL, what's not acceptable in a broken pelvis ?