General Impressed with crash damage

[mattyherts]

ok so the subject is a little strange as why would anyone be impressed with crash damage but I was impressed on just how well my 500s held up to being rear ended ! The same cannot be said about the VW Golf.

I was a bit hard to take after only 3 weeks of owning the car from new but happy to say it is all fixed and back to looking like new. Annoyingly the car in front of the one in front of me happily drove off probably without realising the effect his illegal left hand turn caused behind him.

 

[ahmett]

Sorry to be a partypooper but ALL cars that have been rearended suffer from much less damage than the car that hit it. Its simple physics.
Looks ok though!

 

[UFI]

Basic physics tells us that each body in a collision must disipate half of the total energy. So both cars should be equally damaged.

The reason for the Golf's major damage is that it submarined under the 500's rear crash structure and contacted the 500 with it's soft pedestrian friendly nose.

The outcome would have been quite different if the rear car was an SUV that went over the 500's crash bar.

Good to see the 500 stood up well, regardless.

 

[KaZetec]

Both cars did well here. 500's rear held up and the Golf's front end crumpled (it is actually designed to do just that) to soften the blow and prevent the car it crashed into having to absorb all the energy.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Sorry to be a partypooper but ALL cars that have been rearended suffer from much less damage than the car that hit it. Its simple physics.
Looks ok though!

:yeahthat:

Basic physics tells us that each body in a collision must disipate half of the total energy. So both cars should be equally damaged.

Only assuming they're both exactly the same mass.

TBH I suspect the 500 to have had more damage then appears, OP have you got any photos of the spare wheel well, I suspect the rear panel took a knock.

Rear ends of cars are generally a little tougher than front ends, so what can be seen in the pics doesn't surprise me, its lucky you've been hit fairly square on.

Glad you're ok though.

 

[UFI]

Only assuming they're both exactly the same mass.

In any collision between two objects, the colliding objects exert equal and opposite force upon each other. Newton's law of action-reaction.

 

[mattyherts]

TBH I suspect the 500 to have had more damage then appears, OP have you got any photos of the spare wheel well, I suspect the rear panel took a knock.

Unfortunately not, the boot would not open as the bumper had overlapped the bottom of the boot. The bumper doubled back and was resting on the tyres so was unable to drive.

For me I was stationary and he hit me at around 20mph. I am impressed though as you tend (or I did) think that a Fiat would crumple more as being not a sturdy as others.

 

[Ulpian]

Fiats are extremely solidly built cars.

I don't get this assumption that they wouldn't be.

 

[KaZetec]

Fiats are extremely solidly built cars.

I don't get this assumption that they wouldn't be.

Umm think many people remember this http://youtu.be/liHdDYJGFeA

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

In any collision between two objects, the colliding objects exert equal and opposite force upon each other. Newton's law of action-reaction.

Exactly

Fiats are extremely solidly built cars.

I don't get this assumption that they wouldn't be.

:yeahthat:

Umm think many people remember this http://youtu.be/liHdDYJGFeA

No different to any other cars of early 90's design though tbh.

 

[frupi]

Umm think many people remember this http://youtu.be/liHdDYJGFeA

Modern cars may very well stand up to protecting the occupants from major external body injuries but people still forget that crashing into a solid object at say 60 mph is still most likely going to kill. Internal organs keep travelling, the aortic valve sometimes detaching itself from the rest of the heart upon the force of impact causing the inevitable. Not very nice to read, but sadly it happens.

 

[Murano16v]

Exactly



:yeahthat:



No different to any other cars of early 90's design though tbh.

Didn't fair too well against the Smart though



I had a nice little Siecento Sporting as a cheap run around. Sold it to my ex boss for his daughter. She passed her test at 9.00 in the morning and wrote it off at 6.00 in the evening. Looking at the videos, maybe it didn't take too much.

 

[Alphacos]

My car was rear ended on Monday last week. Luckily (depending on your point of view), the car behind me was stationary at the time but the third car behind that was doing about 30mph when it caused the accident. The car in the middle took most of the damaged but I still ended up having a new rear bumper fitted.

I've noticed the 500S is a sturdy little car and can take a lot of punishment. My previous 500 Lounge was also sturdy in the rear. It was hit a least three times from behind before the damage was noticeable. Mind you the speeds were considerable less though at about 5mph.

You would have thought a bright red car would stand out...

 

[varesecrazy]

nearly as much as an "invisible" broom yellow one

 

[jrkitching]

Fiats are extremely solidly built cars.

I don't get this assumption that they wouldn't be.

Be careful not to confuse crash protection with resistance to damage. Modern cars are, thankfully, designed to protect the occupants in a crash at the expense of the vehicle structure.

This means that although you are much more likely to emerge unscathed after a multiple vehicle altercation, the vehicles are more likely to suffer significant structural damage. Repairing them so that the original crash protection is retained can be problematic and costly.

It's one reason why cars are much more likely to be written off after even a minor accident.

 

[PsFiat]

Yes the good old days of 'solid' cars are fortunately over. You'd tap the bodywork and feel confident the car was 'solid' but actually quite dangerous in a crash. As the previous writer suggests cars today might sound tinny but are designed to crumble so passengers don't.
The 500 also has a ️️️️️safety rating so that inspires confidence as well.

 

[Super Uwe]

Some really good videos there.

We've been toying with the idea of getting a second hand car and then handing our Panda back under the terms of the finance agreement as it might help us to save a bit more money.

However, my wife and I still can't get past the nagging fact that there are so many idiot drivers around our way, and would we really want to be driving an older car with inadequate safety features?

I suppose we might think differently if we didn't have young children, but given that we do, I'd rather pay the extra money and have a car that will give you a much better chance of escaping safely from a serious accident.

Going back on topic, good to see the 500 is doing a good job keeping people safe!

 

[Ulpian]

It was engineered to meet all modern safety requirements, otherwise it wouldn't have been able to meet American safety standards - with minor modification to comply with their detailed differences.

Old cars were death traps, and there are plenty of vids out there showing how they folded when smashed, and took those inside with them. The safety cell, pioneered by Citroen but enhanced and popularised by Mercedes, is central to modern car safety.

The passenger cell is very strong, and the end bits collapse
and absorb the energy, fed from the point of impact in progressive stages, by very clever engineering, along structural pathways around the engine. High strength steels contribute.

A car is only a tool for transport and, let's face it, we know they aren't going to last reliably more than seven to ten years, just as washing machines etc. are not expected to last more than five or six years of heavy usage.

Buy, use, maintain, and keep saving to get a replacement, which wil be safer and in many ways better, after a few years. That's motoring

 

[frupi]

A car is only a tool for transport and, let's face it, we know they aren't going to last reliably more than seven to ten years, just as washing machines etc. are not expected to last more than five or six years of heavy usage.

:Offtopic: Ahh, washing machines you say, well I bought one of the machines in the following link a couple of years ago for the whopping price of £850, but inclusive of ten year parts and labour warranty and with a main bearing originally used in Swedish truck. My next door neighbour has already been through two £180 machines in the last 36 months! As for ours, well it's probably the best bit of household kit we've bought in years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jntqfKMCwRc

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

The safety cell, pioneered by Citroen but enhanced and popularised by Mercedes, is central to modern car safety.

Citroen....really?

Never knew that, thought it was Volvo and Renault etc?