[s-cars] Teen cars

[Taka Mizutani]

If you look at some crash tests, those cars you think will "slice through"
another car will not.

Look up the fifth gear episode where they crash a Volvo 940/960 or S90 into
a current Euro NCAP 5 star rated Renault.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBDyeWofcLY&feature=PlayList&p=8EB36BDBE6506D21&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=41

The Renault slices through the Volvo, not the other way around.

Your best bets will be the newest possible chassis of a top rated car- Volvo
S40/C30 (current), VW Golf/Rabbit/Audi A3 (A5 or A6), Subaru Impreza (either
the '02-07 or the current), Audi A4 (B7 or B8), Audi A6 (C6). I doubt any
listers here are going to buy their children a Subaru Tribeca to drive
around in, or a '09+ Ford Taurus or a Volvo XC60 or XC90.

The Volvo S40, VW Rabbit and Subaru Impreza are cheap enough as used cars to
seriously warrant consideration. I would not put kids in a lesser vehicle
unless I couldn't afford it. On the same note, I wouldn't put my Mom in
anything other than a top-rated vehicle either.

Taka



On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 8:55 PM, LL - NY <larrycleung at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'd agree. I had a 4kq and had to go into the doors for various reasons
> (window regs, door handles) and I thought the little 1 cm (less than 1/2")
> diameter "side impact crash bar" of thinwall steel was a joke compared to
> my
> earlier vintage Saab 99's heavy extruded 2 cm thickwall square sectioned
> impact bar.  IF I had to crash a car (and yeah, the 4kq was dynamically
> superior to the Saab) I would've picked the Saab over the 4kq, hands down.
> The Saab would slice through a B3-Audi, let alone a neu-Mini. The cars are
> great fun, dynamically involving, but if it were my kids (not getting into
> the manual vs. auto debate, the students I work with would get their
> electronic gear working no matter how involving the drive was), I wouldn't
> consider them being in a B3. In that vintage, I'd have to go with the Volvo
> 240 (my roomies did okay with snowies), a Saab 900 (the real ones, the GM
> ones seem compromised), or the 190 M-B. FWIW, has anyone considered a 2001
> Subaru Impreza (NOT WRX, that'd be a mistake). A fun dynamically, involving
> enough, reliable and truly crashworthy vehicle that is cheap to own. Don't
> know what their current market value is, but it's worth a look see.
>
> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 7:05 PM, erikaddy at yahoo.com <erikaddy at yahoo.com
> >wrote:
>
> > A cgt is a nice car but as far as crash safety, a 2005 mini would slice
> > through it like a hot knife through butter.
> >
> > Erik Addy
> > Sent from a mobile device.
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