The 500L is also running on an old chassis designed in the early 2000's with GM this probably doesn't help with the stiffness of the car - clearly the result of this test is not good.
Off Topic 500L crash test safety
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Off Topic 500L crash test safety
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And that to me is not possible, for the reasons I have already said.
Trees and bridge supports can be pretty immovable but other vehicles will to a degree 'give' in an impact.
Whilst the test highlights a significant issue in the design of the 500L I think the risks posed are overplayed given the number of accidents that involve the situation that the 'small overlap' test accurately replicates, rather than a scenario it purports to replicate.
If other makers can engineer their cars to pass then so can Fiat, and they must if they are serious about selling cars in America. This is a genuine safety concern after all.
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Of course they need to sort it as I would imagine a lot will be made of this by the American motoring and buying public. It could even influence sales in other markets where people are aware of it.
As to it being a genuine safety concern, well given the reasons I have given regarding the validity of the test and it's application to actual collision scenarios I remain unconvinced TBH, and it wouldn't deter me from buying another L to replace mine nor will I be getting rid of mine any time soon on the basis of theses results.
I can however fully understand why some would be alarmed by them and consider it a serious concern.
Is there a lorry driving into the back of you test? all the test i see are for us hitting some thing are there tests for stuff hitting us?
where is the people chucking bricks off a motoway bridge test.
where is the people chucking bricks off a motoway bridge test.
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I don't think it would be possible though to test for every possible scenario would it?
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As pointed out a huge amount of time and money had been spent developing this test by experts in the industry. And although no one test is going to accurately test for every possible scenario this has obviously been deemed to be the most accurate method to do so.
Yes in a collision with a pole or tree it's unlikely the object will 'give' and in the test the crash barrier does not give and all the crash force comes from the single vehicle.
When you hit another vehicle then the crash forces are increased greatly and yes another vehicle will 'give' but it also has it's own crash force to dissipate. So two cars hitting head on both travelling at 40mph is no different to a single car hitting an immovable object at 40mph and for that reason the test is very much valid.
And although it might not affect your choice of car now, it will probably become more widely adopted on all cars in the future, and like NCap did 20 years ago, top scoring cars used to get 3 stars and small cars would be lucky to get 2 stars, these days any car scoring so badly would perform very badly on the sales front.
Far more knowledgable men than you and I conceived this test so to right it off as unrealistic or inaccurate is nothing more than burying your head in the sand
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I don't think anybody is burying their head in the sand, people including me will no doubt take due note of the test and apply the level of consideration to it they feel is appropriate. Fiat of course as I've already said need to sort it though.
Looking at the results on that site quickly there are a few manufacturers who need to do some further work on a couple of their models notably Kia for the Sportage which gets a P too and Honda for the CRV which gets an M. Fiat are certainly not on their own and neither of course is the L within Fiats range as the little 500 gets a P too.
Looking at the results on that site quickly there are a few manufacturers who need to do some further work on a couple of their models notably Kia for the Sportage which gets a P too and Honda for the CRV which gets an M. Fiat are certainly not on their own and neither of course is the L within Fiats range as the little 500 gets a P too.
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Wheres this come from out of interest
I have no idea if it is correct or not but I have read somewhere (possibly on here) that the L's floor pan is derived from the Punto.
No idea if that is correct or not as said, given the L's wheelbase it seems a bit of a stretch (no pun intended)
The 500L is based on the Punto chassis the SCCS - which was produced in a short and long wheel base form.
The 2005 Grande Punto debuted the finished platform, however - the GM gamma platform was used as the starting point which underpinned the 2000 Corsa, and the gamma platform was actually derived from the original chassis that was used in the 80's Vauxhall Nova!!!!!
So rather than design a complete new chassis, they were adapted/ modified from the 80's Nova one....
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Aikidoamigo
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How many yanks buy fiats?
I wouldn't think it will get re-engineered
I wouldn't think it will get re-engineered
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About 50,000 a year apparently which isn't to be sniffed at, in addition fiat is a relative newcomer to the states and is trying to build the brand and reputation, sadly the current reputation is pretty poor in terms of reliability and build quality so adding safety 'issues' to the mix will only add to fiats current problems in America
