Hello all. Went for a test drive this past weekend in a Cooper S convertible. Loved the car, but my wife is concerned w/ the safety of the car. She thinks the car is to small and would not protect the occupants well. Has anyone researched this? All of the safety records seem to be for the hatch back not a convertible.

Thanks

 

I had a wreck that did over 15K damage to the car (right front impact) and had no injuries. There was no passenger, but the side of the car protected the seat. The car is fine now after another 11K miles.

 

Do some searches - there have been a number of nasty cabrio crashes (including a couple of rolled cars) documented here by their owners - and all walked away, and in all cases the passenger compartment has remained intact.

That said - with any cabrio you have to be a LITTLE concerned about this. In the MINI's case, you lose the curtain airbags in the cabrio - which would matter in a side impact. My 7 and 10 year old routinely ride in the back seat - and I do care a lot about their safety - but I figure they're probably in the strongest part of the car for side impact. I do worry a little about rear-end collisions...not a lot of room to crush back there in a hard one. But some folks have taken hard rams to the rear without intrusion into the passenger compartment from the rear...