Type 44/5000 safety rating

[Michael Riebs / Audi V8]

There have been several posts over the past year to this list, where drivers
have been rear-ended, or have themselves rear-ended another vehicle, and
have come away unscathed. This is due to the "build-date contemporary"
highly advanced safety rating, and built-in safety measures such as
"crumple-zones", etc, of these cars.

I specifically remember one lister posting about a T44 Avant which had a
meeting with a Honda Accord - The T44 survived with minor bruises, but the
Honda was nearly totaled. Another had a meeting with a Ford F-150, and came
out with fairly minor damage.

Also, there was a posting about a "rarity", an S-4Avant (I think). The
subject line was something like "our local curiosity did it's job tonight".
The car went into a field with 4 passengers, and the accident involved
several telephone poles. The car burned to the ground, but none of it's
occupants came to any harm!

Personally, I have had 2 experiences with the safety in collision with the
T44s:

My 1St V8Q, which impacted the guardrail on the passenger's side front
corner, moving backwards on the highway at 30-50Mph, then rotating and
hitting the passenger's side rear corner. Car was totaled, but I was
completely without injury!!!

Another was back in Denmark, while I was driving a Taxicab in college. One
of the other taxis was a T44Avant, which was responding to a cabbie's
distress call, rushing onto a main thoroughfare from a side street, where it
met an 18-wheeler. The truck hit the front end of the Audi, which was
completely destroyed (the front end, that is), and then the Audi was somehow
"lifted up", spun 180 degrees, and the trailer wheels hit the rear-end of
the wagon, which was also almost flattened. However, the PASSENGER
compartment of the vehicle was completely intact! Even the doors were still
completely vertical, even though the roof was bent in a ^ shape, and
narrower than the original width of the car. The driver and passengers
walked away, shaken, but NOT stirred!

The car has been built with all the available safety measures available to
it at it's time of design and build, and is still today, a marvelously safe
vehicle, even though the "star" safety rating is no longer glorious to
today's standards.

The "safety rating" is based on today's standards, which are much more
vigorous and comprehensive, due to technological advances than they were
10 - 15 years ago. The car is every bit as safe today, as it was when it was
built. It's just that cars have over the years become safer yet, than what
was able to be done at the time!

50 years ago, seat belts were not mandatory in all cars, and noone had even
heard of airbags, and my '40 Buick does not even HAVE seatbelts. Does that
mean that my 6,000Lbs Buick which is built from thick sheetmetal was not a
"very safe" car in 1940? Absolutely not! However, I bet if it were subjected
to a safety test by today's standards, it would have a rating of MINUS 5
stars, due to the complete lack of any safety gear, such as:
Crumple-zones;
Seat belts;
Airbags;
All-way flashers (hazard flashers);
Collapsing telescopic steering column;
A pre-determined travel path for the engine on frontal impact (I'll probably
have the engine in my lap if I hit a semi head-on) Newer cars are built so
the engine will "fold under the passenger compartment" on impact;
Safety glass (it's laminated)
And probably several other things I am forgetting, which have been technical
innovations over the past 60 years.

So, to sum it all up, Audi has always made some of the most safe cars on the
road. They continue to do so. The cars Audi builds today are EVEN SAFER than
they were 10 - 15 years ago, but that does not mean that the safety of the
older cars have decreased, merely that the technology was not available at
the time to make the cars as safe as they are today. 15 years from now, look
at the safety rating of one of today's 5-star rated cars, and see what the
rating will be then! I guarantee you, you will see a similar trend.

Michael L. Riebs
Grand Rapids, Michigan

'90 V8Q
'98 A6QA

www.1stchoicegranite.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Swann" <bswann at worldnet.att.net>
To: <quattro at audifans.com>
Cc: "SWANN (E-mail)" <bswann at worldnet.att.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 10:30 PM
Subject: Type 44/5000 safety rating


> OK - Listers, I'd appreciate some help with this one.  I had always been
> under the impression that out Type 44's were rather safe.  Please help me
> refute this.  I thought I saw some testimonials awhile back proclaiming
> that in this very type of drivers side accident the occupants came out
> miraculously unscathed, while the other vehicle disintegrated on impact,
or
> something to that effect.
>
> I personally con't see how this can be knowing something of the
> construction of these cars.  The only thing I can see is these safety
> rating are making a comparison to the newer luxury cars with side impact
> air bags, and even then, I question this rating.
>
> Here is what happened - the potential buyer of my '87 5000 turbo quattro
> avant backed out due to the following email:
>
> Joe Buyer here.  I've run into a bit of a snag with my wife regarding the
> purchase of your avant.  She's a firm believer in safety ratings and when
> she looked up the stuff on the 87 5000's was not amused at their 1 star
> drivers side rating in the 83-88 range.  Unless I can find something in
> print somewhere to convince here otherwise I'm afraid I'm going to have to
> pass on the car.
>
> Sorry,
>
> Joe Buyer
>
> Name changed to protect the identity of the buyer.
>
> Doesn't change my opinion of these cars, but this really bothers me, in
> addition to not selling the car.
>
> TIA,
>
> Ben
>
>
>
>
>