You may be interested in the integeral strength of this little thing:

This 17 year old in an old style Nissan Micra hit us fair and square in the rear at between 20-40mph.

I was stationary at the time with my foot on the brake behind a queue of traffic that had stopped for a crash 100 yards ahead. Despite the queue of traffic and the blue flashing lights of the police and ambulance, the young chap failed to notice we were there.

The results were quite interesting:

- The collision propelled the Panda forward about 15 feet.
- Seatbelts held, and even for daughter in the back seat, only slight whiplash
- Nissan Micra had lights, wings, bumper, radiator grill taken out and the whole front of the car pushed inwards bending the bonnet right up until it popped.

Apart from some small scratches on the boot lip by the bumper, the paintwork was otherwise OK. The rear bumper had taken the brunt of the damage and had deformed and then smashed, forcing the front of the Micra down and under it - rather than straight through the back.

The mounting pins for the exhaust buckled, as did the exhaust, causing it to drop down into the suspension, but the rest of the car held out fine - even the petrol tank - which I notice is well forward of the bumper.

The Panda was drivable home - allbeit that it had an exhaust banging about on the suspension. The Nissan Micra wasn't driveable ....

Best wishes,
Woody.

glad your both ok is it the new panda?

Yes - the New Panda 1.2 Dynamic in Torquiose (and I'm not a hairdresser).

Best wishes,
Woody.

Glad to hear you are OK, save for a bit of whiplash. As you would expect, you will need to have your car checked-over to make sure the monocoque is not compromised.

Generally, in an incident where a car rear-ends the other, it is the car behind (regardless of what it is) that is worst-off. I had a Saab 9000 rear-end my old Punto, and while my car had a small scratch on the bumper, her front bumper and grill fell-off

Bad luck. Glad to hear you're ok though.

The car is OK - thanks to those folk from Direct Line. Just gave them one call and they handled all the rest - replacement car and a transporter to take mine away. It was in the bodyshop for about two weeks and now it's back, you would never know anything had happened.

Best wishes,
Woody.

Sorry about the crash, but I bet its reassuring to know you're car can cope in the situation

I crashed an old style nissan micra into a skoda and wrote it off.

I was also 17 and had the car a week. In defence of young micra drivers the brakes are rubbish

Glad your all ok

Phil

Glad to hear you are all ok and car is back on road. Hope it hasn't put your daughter off driving.

HI all i have a fiat panda active i crashed it into a wall when backing off my drive hit the back door and back wing made a right mess its all fixed now u carnt tell at all. thanks to vantage vauxhall the body shop is great there !!

hey, go careful with those Pandas, they need loving!!!!!