It happened for the second time today. I'm in a parking lot. A guy walks up and smiles. He says that my Mini must be fun to drive. I nod and tell him that it is fun to drive. I'm thinkinkg that maybe he likes to drive. Possibly he wants to learn more about the Mini. Then he looks at me with a knowing glance and says that it won't hold up well in an encounter with those trucks. Then he points to the Semi Tractor Trailer rigs that are going by on the highway. I tell him that the Mini is safe. It has all the features. Crush zones. Air bags. But he still looks smug and unconvinced. He obviously thinks he knows something I don't. Then I realize that he is an SUV owner and feels safe in his SUV. He didn't really want to learn about the Mini. He wanted to feel superior. So I am wondering if I should enlighten this guy. Semis weigh about 100,000 pounds loaded. No personal vehicle is safe in an encouter with one of them. Any SUV out there will be crushed like a tin can in a recycling masher if hit by a Semi. At least a Mini has a chance to swerve out of the way. I am wondering if I should tell this guy and burst his bubble? I decide to just smile and change the subject. What is it with people? Has anyone else had this happen?

 

Here's some sympathy

 

I was chatting with some bozo once, talking about how superior he felt in his Semi. I told him "Just don't get in my way. Hate to see your little truck get squashed." He looked at me like I was on drugs. At the time, I was a locomotive engineer, and routinely operated 500 ton loco's and 13,000 ton trains.

 

This happens to a lot of us quite often, MC. All I can say regarding the SUV driver's stance is "ignorance is bliss."

 

Maybe you should print out this photo showing the crash test results of a MINI and a Ford F-150 pickup.




Read the full article here

 

I see this on the forum all the time. I would like to point out that you cannot compare two vehicle's crash performance directly unless they are of similar weight. This test simulates a vehicle crashing into a vehicle of similar weight both travelling at just under 40mph.

What the above picture shows you is a MINI crashing into a MINI and a F-150 crashing into a F-150. You will not get the same result if you crash a MINI into a F-150.

As much as I like MINI's safety features and its strong structure, I just think using this as an example is misleading. That said I believe strongly in the MINI's safety features, the airbags, DSC, ASC, crush zones, and the nimble handling, that is why I have one

 

If I knew he had an SUV I'd be tempted to say something about him most likely being involved in the accident in the first place and flipping over while the Mini is more likely to avoid it altogether... I just would not be able to stand someone coming over to simply give attitude and feel superior - I'd at least make him want to think and consider the disadvantages of that tall heavy insular vehicle.

 

Actual crash pictures from my car. Estimated speed, 30 MPH (Me) 10 MPH (Other Party). He made an illegal left hand turn in front of me as I entered the intersection.







From the A Pillar rearward, hell, from mid bonnet to the back bumper there wasn't any damage at all. The windshield cracked from my external nav hitting it during the impact, and both front airbags deployed. His car didn't fair so well, the bumper was nowhere to be found. The car had noticable frame damage, and the driver was pretty banged up. I had a burn on my arm from the airbag going off, and a stiff neck, but I was fine.

Here's a picture of his car...


Sometimes people's stupidity makes me wonder how they live on a day to day basis... but alas, this was nearly a year ago, and there's nothing I could have done.

Anyway, Mini > SUV Bigtime in the safety factor... and to those who talk about getting hit by an SUV, the pictures above prove that it does just fine, and actually faired a lot better than the SUV that hit me!

 

People say that crap to me all the time. "Dont you worry about getting crushed by an SUV?"

I hate the whole mentality of people who think you need a giant heavy car to be safe.

"SUV - safety through mutually assured destruction"

 

Ahh, the Security Mom mentality. Or it's MINI NV.
GREAT pics of the MINI vs the Go Anywhere JEEP (not a car).

 

Well I agree with you about swerving out of the way, but lets face it if a mini or an suv were to be hit by a semi neither would stand much of a chance.

 

Actually, the article states that this was an off-set barrier test, meaning both vehicles struck the same stationary object. If this was a vehicle vs vehicle test like you said, the closing speed would be around 80mph, and I think in both cases the damage would be rather extreme compared to what is shown.

 

At my job one of the "macho" co-workers who owns a larger truck was commenting on how his truck would "crush" me, and why I would ever want to get a car that small... I simply told him (no offense to anyone on this board who has a truck) that I am a girl and I dont' need a big truck to make up for my uh hum shortcomings... That got a good laugh out of the crowd and he turned a nice shade of red, oh and he changed the subject..

 

And I see that response all the time. The article doesn't compare the two as if they would have hit. it compares their crash-test results from a standard off-set crash test. Nowhere in the article does it ever compare the two as if they would have hit head-on.

 

The article actually does make a comparison with this wildly speculative comment:

"Now there’s no question what would win in a head-on collesion between the two"

If I was to be in a similar speed head on crash with a Ford F-150 (both cars going 20-30mph), I'd much rather be in my MINI than in another F-150.

 

I love my MINI, but I have to say, I wouldn't want to be sitting in the back seat if someone rear-ended me....!

 

I've spoken with someone in the crash test result industry and he's confirmed what was said in the article in regards to the F150 doing better in a direct head-on accident. That's where that sentence came from. And yes, I wrote that article back in fall of '02.

I should have clarified that no where in the article does it say the MINI would win in a head-on accident.

 

isn't much of the problem here the concept of 'winning' car accidents?

you can win a demolition derby, but i don't think you can win a car accident: you survive one.

 

I was in a three car accident several months ago with a jeep and a pickup. Pickup cut off jeep who lost control trying to avoid the truck and came into my lane. I wasn't able to completely miss the jeep, but I was able to avoid a head-on colission and instead take a glancing blow to the side. An suv wouldn't have been able to do that.

 

Based on the data that I've read, the fatality rate for SUVs and cars is essentially the same. It's just that the cause of death is different -- SUV's are more likely to roll over. So, you can tell SUV drivers that while they might feel safer in their oversized, overweight machines, statistically they're no safer than you are in your Mini.

 

That is the point of my story. I expect SUV owners to feel smug about if they hit me, but this guy was thinking that I wouldn't do well against a Semi but he would and since Semis weigh 100,000 pounds no personal vehicle would survive a collision with one as I mention I was thinking of telling him.

 

That is not correct.

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/frontal_test_info.html

4th paragraph:
In the Institute's 40 mph offset test, 40 percent of the total width of each vehicle strikes a barrier on the driver side. The barrier's deformable face is made of aluminum honeycomb, which makes the forces in the test similar to those involved in a frontal offset crash between two vehicles of the same weight, each going just less than 40 mph. Test results can be compared only among vehicles of similar weight. Like full-width crash test results, the results of offset tests cannot be used to compare vehicle performance across weight classes. This is because the kinetic energy involved in the frontal test depends on the speed and weight of the test vehicle, and the crash is more severe for heavier vehicles. Given equivalent frontal ratings for heavier and lighter vehicles, the heavier vehicle typically will offer better protection in real-world crashes.

 

You're right Gabe, the article doesn't state that the MINI crashed head on into the F-150. But for the uninformed people who does not know what this test simulates or how to interpret the results, putting those 2 pictures side by side surely makes it easy for people to come to the wrong conclusions. You know, some people don't actually read the article but just jump into conclusion based on the pictures.

That said I stronly believe in the MINI's safety features, thats why I've got one

 

cydewaze, 40 mph into a immovable object is exactly the same as two of the same objects hitting head on, each moving 40 mph. So the offset collision test simulates two identical cars hitting head on (at an offset) at 40 mph.

 

techno, come on, nobody's gonna buy that. newton's third law doesn't apply to MINIs!