do euro ncap crash test ratings actually mean much?

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do euro ncap crash test ratings actually mean much?

Not quite 8k pa in the 70's iirc from that programme I linked about, but there are now 10 times more cars, so that vs the decrease is a massive improvement!

incidently, i remember reading some time back that the majority of road accidents involve only one vehicle, crashing into a wall, tree, through a fence etc than into another car. so yes i can see that being the case.
 
youd think in 2013 theyd perfect the design and ensure 5 stars prior to launch.

Indeed.

Looking at the test it looks like it was the protection against whiplash in the event of a rear collision that let it down rated as 'marginal' rather than 'good'......not something that's hard to get right surely?:confused:

What's interesting of course is that the standards needed to get an NCAP 5 star rating rise. So if the 500 was submitted this year it wouldn't get 5 stars because it doesn't have ESP across the range, my understanding is you need this now (and is why it's fitted to the 500L) to get a max. rating no matter how well the car submitted performs in the actual crash tests.
 
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incidently, i remember reading some time back that the majority of road accidents involve only one vehicle, crashing into a wall, tree, through a fence etc than into another car. so yes i can see that being the case.

Lets also remember that tyres are better these days, about a million times better in fact :)
 
youd think in 2013 theyd perfect the design and ensure 5 stars prior to launch.

Well they're not to know if its perfected until tested are they.

Mk3 Panda only got 3 stars back in 2004 when the norm was 4, and the current mk4 panda only has 4 starts now when the norm is 5.

And then again how many have 5 stars which they've only just scrapped for having silly things like seat belt reminders etc?
 
Well they're not to know if its perfected until tested are they.

but wouldn't you think that in a day of CAD and computer simulations that it would be possible to perfect the design and identify possible weaknesses before they get to the construction stage.

The Adam example referred to above appears to have been let down by it's whiplash protection, surely it can't be hard in this day and age to design a seat and headrest system that would score sufficiently in an NCAP test? (Though of course Vauxhall seemingly doing just that may prove that it's a lot harder than we think!)
 
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