General Mk1 Panda safety report

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General Mk1 Panda safety report

Pengelly

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Looking for a Mk1 Panda for my son when he passes his test, as they're a cool, little motor.
However, I'm getting a bit of opposition from someone saying that they are dangerous.
I always remember them as being quite robust.
Are there and safety reports on the classic Panda or can anyone give any advice on how well they fare in a pang compared to new vehicles?
 
Hi :)

Like most cars of that era you are looking at..

No airbags and limited 'crash structure'

Its also going to be challenged by 25+ years of 'deterioration'

Mk1 punto would be a fair yardstick for comparison..
As it has a drivers airbag and a proper plastic 'dashboard'

My nephew took on our 1996 panda 141

And had it written off in a 30mph zone crash.. it fared worse than a punto
 
All things are relative, referring to it as "dangerous" is a bit melodramatic, it's on a par with small cars of that era and before that many people drove and survived, and it's going to be a lot less risky than a motorbike for example. However crash safety is something that has come on in leaps and bounds over the last 2 or 3 decades so in a crash any post millennium car and it's occupants will probably fare considerably better.
Don't crash it!
 
As has been said above, there's so much safety related "stuff" in today's cars with more being added all the time that, for those of us who are interested in older cars, I think it's pointless to attempt to compare and relate the two. Even our 2010 Panda and my boy's 2012 Punto now come out quite poorly by comparison with more modern machines.

I'm interested in anything on wheels (and even without wheels) with an IC engine but find the older machines, say 1960's and earlier, of particular interest. If you start looking at their crash "survivability" on paper it looks horrendous but this only becomes part of the equation if you have a serious accident in one. I'm thoroughly fed up with "the nanny society" we live in today and believe life has been given to me to take maximum advantage of - but not to the detriment of others - So driving around in our old 1992 Panda Parade, or any of the other old vehicles I've owned over the years, causes me no concern.

It's all a matter of how you view it in my opinion. Life's a gamble and it's up to you to make the best choice at the moment in time and with the info you can gather and a lot of the time we'll all make a less than optimum choice - but that's the human condition!
 
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