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[~Marcus~]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tigger, Eeyore & Roo (original)

Agreed.

I think that you misunderstood this as criticism of the R56 over any other MINI; it wasn't meant to be.

This thread was intended for discussion, so it was simply an observation of an possible inconsistency between what BMW have been recently been reported as saying and the performance of one of their own designs. That's all.

The problem is with these tests is that, although they are meant to simulate the most frequently occuring accidents, they are necessarily limited in the kinds of accidents that they can afford to cover. There is, for instance, absolutely nothing to cover a roll over accident or a tail end crash.

Consequently, all any vehicle manufacturer needs to do, to get a good score, is to get their designs to perform their "party tricks" in the very limited circumstances of these simulated accidents. So a manufacturer can trade of protection in a 40 mph head on crash, or a roll over accident, for better protection in a 30 mph head on crash to get their full 5 star score. This is pretty much what BMW was, quite fairly, complaining about.

Here's another thing to bear in mind: As I understand it, the driver's seat position for the tests is set at half way between "fully forward" and "fully back". Seems fair enough on the face of it. But some manufacturers have, apparently, fitted longer seat rails to their production cars to enable a half way position to be further away from the steering wheel! (Has anyone else noticed car seats having more rearward travel then they used to?)

When looking at Euro NCAP results it's just worth being aware of the limitations of the results.

Even taking these tricks, dodges and limitations into account, Euro NCAP seems to have been the best thing to happen to car safety in decades; it is the only way we can check the manufacturer's claims in a controlled environment.

Tigger.

I agree with all this - as you say it's all we have to compare, the worrying thing is that without NCAP we'd have to rely on the legislation, which stops far short of Euro NCAP and allowed the Chinese Landwind SUV to be sold in Europe. See the horror here!

YouTube - Landwind Crash Test - Outside

Quote: Originally Posted by Tigger

I would like to see them test a few cars from 20 years ago just to see how far things have come on in that time.

I remember reading a report where they put a Ford Sierra through the EuroNCAP regime and the result was certain death for the driver, whereas in three generations the Mondeo has gone from three to four to (predicted) five stars.Which in real terms is like going from death to disabling to minor injuries - can't argue with that progress. The progress of the BMW 3 series from two to four to five stars makes interesting reading too.

The Mk2 Golf was a safe car for its time but wouldn't like to have been the driver in this:

YouTube - crash test volkswagen golf mk2