IIHS New "big car vs small car" crash test reveals some very interesting results:

http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/14/auto...n=money_latest

"Car vs. car
In the case of the Honda Fit, which was crashed into a Honda Accord, the Fit's crash test dummy's head hit the steering wheel through the airbag, and showed a high likelihood of leg injury as well. There was also significant crushing of the Fit's passenger compartment.
The larger Accord's passenger compartment held up well, and the likelihood of injury was low, the Institute said.
In a crash with a Toyota Camry, the Toyota Yaris's door was "largely torn away" the Institute said. In both cars, the crash test dummy's head struck the steering wheel through the airbag, but only in the Yaris did that result in a serious likelihood of injury. The test dummy in the Yaris also suffered extensive crash forces on the the neck and leg as well as a deep gash in the right knee.
The ultra-small Smart ForTwo was knocked into an airborne 450-degree spin when it was smashed into a Mercedes-Benz C-class sedan. (Smart and Mercedes-Benz are both products of Germany's Daimler AG (DAI).) That contributed to "excessive movement" of the dummy inside, the Institute said. Injuries, especially to the head and legs, would be likely in a crash like this.
"The Smart is the smallest car we tested, so it's not surprising its performance looked worse than the Fit's," Lund said in the statement. "Still both fall into the poor category, and it's hard to distinguish between poor and poorer." "


In all three tests: 1. Honda Accord vs Honda Fit; 2. MB C-class vs MB Smart; 3. Toyota Camry vs Toyota Yaris all results in serious injuries/damage on the small car side.

While my Mini's fantastic handling let me simply AVOID dangerous collision all the time , it is fair to say situation like this can happen to a Mini owner on an extremely unlucky day .

 

"If you're in a mini-car or a micro-car, almost anything you hit is going to be larger"

There's your problem right there. Get those larger cars off the road.

 

Does this really surprise anyone? The normal test is 35 MPH into a fixed object. This test was done with both cars traveling 35 MPH. Yes this type of accident does happen from time to time, but it is not really all that common. Why don't they give us the results for these cars for the standard tests?

You could also match any midsize with a monster SUV and get the same results.

It looks to me like someone just trying to get some publicity.

 

Last Year ADAC also perform similar "big vs small" crash test (Audi Q7 vs Fiat 500)in Germany, but the result is nowhere as bad as what IIHS demonstrate here. One key difference is the speed of IIHS's crash test is higher than ADAC's version.

The key here is vehicle weight: if Honda manages to built an accord as light as a fit then the result could change dramatically. But how to design a small car that is much safer in this type of collision and still very efficient? optional 800lbs battery in a plug-in hybrid Mini to make it safer?

 

I don't have the same concerns in my Mini Cooper S that I would have in a Honda Fit, Smart or other micro car. Sorry, it just ain't the same.

Sure, smaller can be dangerous, IF you are wearing blinders and aren't careful. Just be safe everyone. These are great cars.

 

They are great cars in some ways, but are relatively unsafe when you look at the mix of vehicles on the average American road. Even if you are careful collisions can happen and, when they do, chances are that the other vehicle will be bigger.

 

Both cars were going 40! When you consider the other vehicle's higher weight, that's like the smaller one going more than 80 into a brick wall. Yeah, some people are gonna get hurt when you do that. Why isn't anyone reporting on that difference in the tests?

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009...ef=automobiles

 

[quote=nickminir56;2734877]IIHS New "big car vs small car" crash test reveals some very interesting results:

http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/14/auto...n=money_latest

"Car vs. car
In the case of the Honda Fit, which was crashed into a Honda Accord, the Fit's crash test dummy's head hit the steering wheel through the airbag, and showed a high likelihood of leg injury as well. There was also significant crushing of the Fit's passenger compartment.
The larger Accord's passenger compartment held up well, and the likelihood of injury was low, the Institute said.
In a crash with a Toyota Camry, the Toyota Yaris's door was "largely torn away" the Institute said. In both cars, the crash test dummy's head struck the steering wheel through the airbag, but only in the Yaris did that result in a serious likelihood of injury. The test dummy in the Yaris also suffered extensive crash forces on the the neck and leg as well as a deep gash in the right knee.
The ultra-small Smart ForTwo was knocked into an airborne 450-degree spin when it was smashed into a Mercedes-Benz C-class sedan. (Smart and Mercedes-Benz are both products of Germany's Daimler AG (DAI).) That contributed to "excessive movement" of the dummy inside, the Institute said. Injuries, especially to the head and legs, would be likely in a crash like this.
"The Smart is the smallest car we tested, so it's not surprising its performance looked worse than the Fit's," Lund said in the statement. "Still both fall into the poor category, and it's hard to distinguish between poor and poorer." "


In all three tests: 1. Honda Accord vs Honda Fit; 2. MB C-class vs MB Smart; 3. Toyota Camry vs Toyota Yaris all results in serious injuries/damage on the small car side.

This Doesnt Include The MINI

This is wat the MINI Rated
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=303



Mini Cooper


Frontal offset test results
Overall ratings shown; follow links for test details and component scores
2007-09 models 2002-06 models Technical measurements (driver-side occupant compartment intrusion and driver injury) for minicars Side impact test results
Overall ratings shown; follow links for test details and component scores
2008-09 models mfg. after Jul. 2008 with standard side airbags 2006 models mfg. after Dec. 2005 with standard side airbags Technical measurements (structure, driver injury, and passenger injury) for minicars

 

Hmm... what did we expect? Ford F350 vs MINI Cooper... I wonder what's going to happen... Our cars are relatively safe considering how small they are though.

http://www.minifinity.com/distributi...94cfe6#p783268

 

Mm... actually, the IIHS says that the extra maneuverability some claim increases the safety of small cars has no significant effect on statistics (still more claims in small cars than larger cars).

I'm comfortable around town with the MINI, and a couple "significant" highway trips a month. If I drove on the highways with no medians daily (I'm thinking Sea-to-Sky), I would probably opt for at least a compact car.

 

Having "crash tested" my MINI, I'm reasonably comfortable with how well it protects the occupants in a collision.

I worked 7+ years in EMS (ambulance and air medical) and I've seen all kinds of crashes, and I'm never going to be 100% comfortable with how any vehicle protects occupants in a crash. There are too many variables. I've seen people injured/killed in minor accidents in large (supposedly safe) vehicles and no injuries in really bad crashes in smaller (supposedly unsafe) vehicles.

 

Well I am not worried about this kind of accident cause las time I checked I don't drive like a window licker. I actually pay attention while I drive. But if it does happen that I get in a head on I will probably be going faster then 35mph. Try to set off the weight difference.

 

Is that article trying to convince us to drive those big people-killer vehicles? I say smaller cars are safer cuz they won't plow down people
..but then again, MINIs are mighty; remember this wreck? http://jalopnik.com/5096933/chevy-ta...per-pays-price tahoe loses

 

So using just mass alone as an indicator of safety the Mini Clubman would come in much safer than the Smart or Yaris, and slightly better than the Fit:

Accord / Camry aprox 3300 lbs

Mini Clubman 2850 lbs

Honda Fit 2600 lbs

Toyota Yaris 2350 lbs

Smart 4 Two 1800 lbs

Its no wonder the Smart 4 two got launched into the air.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...14/456905.html

 

I saw this in the news today and my eyes rolled themselves and Captain Obvious started waving furiously. Physics hasn't changed: E=MC^2

If you're driving a Smart and decide to run into an overpass, take a guess which will have more compliance. What IIHS testing fails to account for is active safety and driver ineptitude. If you're driving a Ferrari people are very unlikely to run into you because you have a magic halo of dollar bills surrounding the car, not to mention the owner will be supremely careful to avoid dumb people doing dumb things to protect his precious. Psycho Soccer mom's in crossovers and minivans are absolute evil satan road spawn and are practically guaranteed to slam into whatever gets remotely in their way and sue accordingly. Oh I digress.....

Mass is a distant function of safety; crumple design, occupant protection, and force management are much more important! A 1960's land yacht X will impale you with its steering wheel well before most modern cars airbags will even need to be deployed. Mass only dictates who recieves more g-forces. From there it depends on vehicle safety design to protect the occupants.

The bottom line is the IIHS study doesn't prove anything that all high school graduates should already know as common sense.

 

Since the Mini is actually heavy for its size some of that extra density was used to provide better strength and protection which helps to equalize the smaller car factor.

I could see me getting hit on the side thanks to some inept driver, but its hard to imagine a head on hit when the Mini responds in a fraction of a second to any turn of the wheel. These really are improbable events.

 

You guys are still missing the point. The normal crash tests are done with a vehicle going 35 mph into a barricade. I looked it up at dot.gov. By having two vehicles hit head on, each traveling 40 mph, that's like one hitting a barricade at 80! If they really wanted a comparable test, each car should have been going 20mph. Either they don't know the difference, or they do, did 20mph each first and didn't like the results.

 

Tests are just tests. Things are sometimes different in the real world.
See full article.

 

That article isn't saying what it appears to say at first glance. Rather than showing that SUVs and light trucks are more dangerous than cars per mile driven, all the article is really saying is that although the number of traffic deaths in 1975 and 2006 were almost the same, that light trucks and SUV accounted for a higher percentage of the deaths in 2006 than they did in 1975.

Well no kidding - light trucks and SUVs made up a much bigger percentage of all vehicles on the road in 2006 than they did in 1975. It would be foolish to think that the number of deaths in light truck/SUV crashes would go anywhere BUT up compared to 1975. Guess what - more Mazda Miatas were involved in fatal accidents in 2006 than in 1975, too.

Now, if they had included sales figures showing what percentage of vehicle sales in 1975 and 2006 came from SUVs and light trucks, that would have been more illuminating.

 

here are few comparisons by fifth gear:
big volvo v. small reno


and another one


this one is a bit off topic but still relevant

 

Its amazing how cars react during an accident. I think that the test they(IIHS) is a little swayed in the fact that a fit is the entry level car for Honda and the Accord is almost top of the line. The higher you go in models the more safety they offer. Its not that way in MINI cause the cars are fundamentally the same. If you have owned another car from a differnent company namely Japanese or American (European doesn't count cause the quality of vehicles is mouch higher) you start seeing the difference in safety namely side airbags. Also the mass is a big part of it. It is like throwing a rock through a window.

 

Ryephile:

"E=MC^2" has absolutely nothing to do with automotive collisions.

"all high school graduates should already know as common sense"

 

I'm not sure why you would think that.

E=MC^2 "is the concept that mass and energy are the same thing" (from Wikipedia) and that is exactly what we are discussing here. The larger the car the more mass it has and the more energy it gives to the other car (or the object) it hits.

 

wow! next week the startling news that a semi hitting a motorcycle will cause more harm to the motorcycle. another study designed to waste money.

 

The only problem with these two fifth gear tests is they use previous generation SUV against new generation small car with modern safety design. But in IIHS's test, they use the same generation vechile from the same manufacturer.

Btw, I have driven my friends brand new 09 Honda fit for quite a few times. While it is a generally safe vehicle in normal crash test, I always feel a considerable degree of chassis flexing whenever I run through some bumpy road at low speed -- a tin on four wheel.

On the other hand, my Mini always feel strudy and rock solid when I run through the same bumpy road at 50% greater speed. Supervior chassis stiffness is a fundamental element to Mini's superb handling, and it might just give us some crucial extra safety capacity in an extreme crash situation.