Do you know what happens to a Rover 100 (Rover/Austin Metro) when it's propelled into a deformable concrete wall at 40MPH? If not I insist that you visit this page to find out.
For those not familiar with Euro NCAP's testing procedures, during the frontal impact assessment the test vehicle is hurled at a concrete barrier at 40MPH and only 40% of the front of the car contacts the barrier. This, apparently, simulates a 'typical' crash.
There is no doubt that crash tests are hugely valuable and Euro NCAP’s ratings should be taken very seriously. There is, however, an inherent flaw in the method of testing I have just described, namely that it simulates the test vehicle hitting another identical vehicle. This means that energy exerted on the car is dictated by its own mass and that the strongest parts of the vehicle absorb the highest forces (since they also transmit the highest forces and those forces are essentially reflected by the wall).
It is impossible to accurately predict what will happen to any given vehicle in a crash, but it is more than fair to assume that since the Rover 100 crumples when in a collision with an identically small, light and weak vehicle that the damage will be even worse when faced by practically anything else. The thought of it colliding with a modern car that would probably have a very strong (and therefore damaging) passenger cell really doesn't bear thinking about.
This, rather neatly, brings me to one of my biggest concerns when it comes to vehicle safety: compatibility. The fact that modern crash testing programmes don't account for the different types of vehicles that you make hit head on (they do so to an extent in side impact tests) hugely devalues the ratings given by Euro NCAP. A 1998 Renault Megane may give you four star protection when hit by another 1998 Megane, but what happens if it hits the larger, stronger and safer (for the occupants) 2007 Megane? That's not a question that I can answer, but crash tests between old and new cars have shown that many older cars (and their occupants) suffer as a result of the fantastic rigidity of the passenger cells of many modern cars.
I’m not wholly sure that I agree with the stringent laws that govern how safe new cars have to be for their occupants, however I do feel that new cars should not jeopardise the safety of other road users. That’s why significantly more stringent legislation needs to be brought in to protect pedestrians in impacts and new tests should be devised to ensure that the strength and mass of one vehicle doesn’t hinder the ability of another to protect it’s occupants.
