okay, having clinched the title for the worst topic line ever posted in the cars & bikes section, allow me to continue with my recent spate of semi sanctimonious, quasi questionable, pseudo safety related posts with this eye opener that very graphically (as in visually effective, not blood and guts) demonstrates just what having or not having Euro NCAP-5 safety rating on your car means to you in the event of a car crash…
Fifth Gear head on collision test, old Espace vs. new Espace WORK SAFE…
I’d like to see it up against an S-Class or 7-Series or one of these big SUVs. They have a hell of a lot more momentum. Two Range Rovers crashing into each other must be horrendous.
That’s quite an eye-opener.
It prompted me to Google for the safety rating given to my little Suzuki Swift, and I was pleased to read that “the all new Suzuki Swift has scored an impressive safety rating from independent assessment body Euro NCAP, which placed the popular light passenger vehicle among the top of its class” with a four-star crash test rating.
[quote=“Omniloquacious”]That’s quite an eye-opener.
It prompted me to Google for the safety rating given to my little Suzuki Swift, and I was pleased to read that “the all new Suzuki Swift has scored an impressive safety rating from independent assessment body Euro NCAP, which placed the popular light passenger vehicle among the top of its class” with a four-star crash test rating.[/quote]
That’s my car too. Thanks for the info. I have a question…when you pull up your emergency brake all the way…do the rear tires lock? Because with my car if it’s moving…the emergency brake barely slows it down at all…the dealer said it’s normal. Which I’m 99.99 percent sure is bullshit.
In the first week after getting the car, I drove up the very steep ramp from my underground car park and about one kilometre along the road before I noticed that the handbrake was still full on. 
I’d wondered why the car was a little bit sluggish going up that incline, but otherwise it seemed to be running pretty much normally.
[quote=“Mordeth”][quote=“Omniloquacious”]That’s quite an eye-opener.
It prompted me to Google for the safety rating given to my little Suzuki Swift, and I was pleased to read that “the all new Suzuki Swift has scored an impressive safety rating from independent assessment body Euro NCAP, which placed the popular light passenger vehicle among the top of its class” with a four-star crash test rating.[/quote]
That’s my car too. Thanks for the info. I have a question…when you pull up your emergency brake all the way…do the rear tires lock? Because with my car if it’s moving…the emergency brake barely slows it down at all…the dealer said it’s normal. Which I’m 99.99 percent sure is bullshit.[/quote]Handbrakes on the few cars I’ve driven generally haven’t been that strong. They’re generally supposed to stop the car rolling down a hill only, and I don’t imagine handbrake turns are part of the design spec for the Swift!
That’s exactly why I purchased a 5 star NCAP rated Prius as well as other benefits. There doesn’t seem to be a single Taiwan built car that conforms to the same build standards as a European model with NCAP rating. The Yaris for example in the European NCAP rating achieved 5 stars, but that car came with 9 airbags, the Taiwan model has a measly 2, same with Nissans, Toyota models and most other manufacturers as far as I can gather. What makes things worse here is the fact that Taiwan doesn’t even have a crash rating system, and all that cars must do to pass a safety inspection before going on sale is stop. Scary stuff!
exact same reason I went with the TDI Golf, it’s the exact same spec as the EU model, not a crappy watered down Taiwan market version, so it has 12 airbags including side and curtain, belt pretensioners, safety cell crumple zones, the lot… and perfect score NCAP 5 in all 3 categories…
I should add that many car salesmen will purposely try and confuse Taiwan customers into thinking that the Taiwan built car on sale is of the same construction quality as those in Europe or America. Many times when we were car hunting did salesmen hold out a newspaper article or show us a video on the model we were looking at, telling us “You see, this car has a five star NCAP safety rating in Europe”. This is true, but “in Europe” is the key to understanding the dangerous misleading lie that most salesmen are shoveling in order to get people’s arses in seats. Don’t trust ANYTHING these people tell you and do your own homework. I was even told by a Mazda salesman that the Mazda 5 I was looking at shared not one single common part with Ford, as I had told him that I didn’t trust in Ford build quality as much as Mazda. I later went home and did my homework only to find that the Mazda five has a Ford engine in it. Trust me when I say that no matter what they tell you, they are only trying to get that car out of their showroom.
I have to say that the brand I was most impressed with in terms of what a salesman told me and what was actually true was Volks Wagon. I visited three VW showrooms and I spoke to three different sales personnel, not one of them claimed something that wasn’t true and honest about the vehicles I looked at in regards to the safety elements of the cars. On each occasion I told them that safety was my primary concern and they each showed me straight to a model of Golf or Passat, and even when I purposely asked one about the safety of a Caravelle and made believe that I was interested, the salesman told me that it wasn’t as safe as the Golf. I was impressed to say the least. I have so far been unsuccessfully misled by Honda, Toyota and Mazda and I’m sure the other’s would have tried if I had shown any signs of interest in their Taiwan built models. There seems to be no trading standards when it comes to the sale of automobiles in Taiwan, so watch out!
Some interesting or useful links:
howsafeisyourcar.com.au/ (an Australian safety information site)
safermotoring.co.uk/NCAPSafetyRatings.html
Given how Taiwanese people drive I would not be on the road with anything less than a M1 Abhram. People are lousy drivers (and supposely Taiwan is one of the better Asian countries because other backwater countries like Thailand/Cambodia/India is a LOT worse). However I can’t imagine all the bad drivers here driving M1 Abrahams…
True, even living within a depleted uranium shell would be a safer bet than being in any other vehicle at times.
True, even living within a depleted uranium shell would be a safer bet than being in any other vehicle at times.[/quote]
problem is that if an abrams hit another abrams, the two tanks are designed to survive without much damage, but the people inside are crushed (oh well, cant win em all)