Looking to buy a s/h car to replace a mk1 Focus. Quite liked the c-max we saw at local dealers, can be picked up fairly reasonably and does all we need from the appliance which it’ll be. Also considering Octavia Estate (wonder why?) but both only have 4 star NCAP’s just like my current focus, quelle horreur! One of my pre-requisites was a 5 star rating, should I be bothered?

YOu can, IIRC, see the actual breakdown on the ncap site, to find out why it was lower, and make a decision based on that. I bought a 20 year old performance car so I’m not likely to have ncap anxiety. 4 or 5 I’d not be too bothered, 3 I’d think about if for carrying family/kids.

You should be bothered if you are bothered by such things, and not if you’re not.
FWIW the NCAP rating of a person on a bicycle is somewhat lower than 5 stars 🙂

FWIW the NCAP rating of a person on a bicycle is somewhat lower than 5 stars

The passenger compartment intrusion alone in a 30mph impact would make you wince!

Not at all; 4 vs. 5 could be down to a warning for the passenger seatbelt. Now go and watch the Renault Espace (*****) vs. Landrover Discovery (think it was a ***) crash.

Almost nothing gets a *** now…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIKu1UDoa6s[/video]

If you worry about these things too much you might end up going home in a renault so be careful.

Lots of petty things go into the rating as mentioned above so have a look into the car you want. C-Max would be more than safe enough.

I remember watching the crash test on a VW T25 on the NCAP website shortly after my first son was born. The cab was utterly obliterated and the rear wheels kept driving forward, the whole van just folded in on itself.

Sold it shortly afterwards and bought a touran.

Both our cars are 4*. We wouldn’t go any lower.

The car before was a 1* ’99 Fiat Bravo that folded like a wet egg box when I crashed it!

If you worry about these things too much you might end up going home in a renault so be careful.

Ha ha, the Scenic (new shape) is one of the runners in my car search. Along with Picasso, C-Max and Verso.

I remember watching the crash test on a VW T25 on the NCAP website shortly after my first son was born. The cab was utterly obliterated and the rear wheels kept driving forward, the whole van just folded in on itself.

I’ve seen that or something similar, there’s one parked in my road with a “Jesus is my airbag” sticker, thinking he should have gone for the sorcerer not the apprentice.

I think the problem with NCAP ratings is that they only measure specific types of impacts when there is pretty much every type of impact possible and any one car will react differently in pretty much any impact it is in and dependent on what it impacts against. I know they have to have some kind of standard to measure, but I wouldn’t get too hung up on it.

(Saying that we chose our last car based on its ratings for rear passenger safety).

Don’t buy a Renault for Gods sake. It mught get 5 stars in a crash but to get those it has to work and that is not a given.

LOL – they get 5 stars as they are always stationary…

I would get hung up on it, to be honest. There are enough 5* cars around now to give yourself the best possible protection without having to compromise.

Sure there could be factors that are not designed for in crashes, but there’s no doubt that NCAP has had a big effect on safety, and the thing that costs a car that last star could be the thing that kills your wife.

Both my cars are 5*. I’d have to really really want a car to get 4* and even then it’d have to fail on something slightly more benign.

“Ha ha, the Scenic (new shape) is one of the runners in my car search”

had a hire 2011 scenic for 3 weeks – albe it in LHD but **** me it was small …. big car – big boot – small interior …. was quick for a 1.6 though – compared to my 2 old mid 90s 1.6 engines ive had in the past

missus 02 golf has a bigger passenger compartment….

Erm, obviously not….

Just checked my 2t Ford Ranger Pick-up and it has 2 stars for adults, 3 stars for child passengers and 2 stars for pedestrians 😯

Thought it would be quite safe for passengers at least – FAIL.

Yes, people usually assume big = safe, this is definitely not the case. Although trying to explain that to people, especially Americans, is usually futile.

Yes, people usually assume big = safe, this is definitely not the case. Although trying to explain that to people, especially Americans, is usually futile.

From the NCAP website

Are large cars safer than small cars?

In frontal impacts between cars, the occupants of the heavier car or the one with higher structures tend to fare better than those travelling in lighter, lower cars.

My 2.7 tonne car has a 4-star NCAP for frontal impact, but in truth I’d rather be in that than my other car, a 1.6 tonne 5-star car if it ever came to a big crash.

n frontal impacts between cars, the occupants of the heavier car or the one with higher structures tend to fare better than those travelling in lighter, lower cars

Right. But that’s a heavily qualified statement and it also includes the words ‘tends to’ so I am still correct.

When researching this a while ago I found a list of car occupant deaths categorised by type of car – in the US. There was no correlation between size or type of car and number of deaths. There were big cars and small cars at the top of the list. There are so many factors influencing if you live or die in a real world accident scenario. Not least the fact that smaller cars can avoid more stuff than bigger ones and get through smaller gaps; and better handling cars can stop and swerve better.

Having crashed my Passat in style I can confirm that it really looks after you in a smash.

Both air bags deployed, seat belt tensioner etc. No injuries, whiplash or other injuries. Damage to car was relatively superficial, i.e. no damage to ‘structure’.

The other cars roof was buckled.

My big tough 4×4….

Bigger cars weigh more of course.. so if you hit something solid you have more energy to try and shift.

The other cars roof was buckled.

That means nothing – things are designed to bend (and in doing so, absorb the force of the impact). It might have been designed into the vehicle as part of it’s crash safety.

things are designed to bend

Not the passenger cell though!

There was no correlation between size or type of car and number of deaths. There were big cars and small cars at the top of the list.

Yes, agreed. But if you have a 5-star large/heavy car versus a 5-star light/small car, which one is going to be safer? Ignoring the slightly dubious ‘it’s so nimble it could avoid the accident anyway’ scenario – which doesn’t work if you’re sandwiched on a motorway, or hit from the side by another car – you’ll be safer in the bigger car.

Of course, others will not be so safe – my large car has a 1-star rating for pedestrian safety.

Not the passenger cell though!

Well no, and I am no expert (obviously) but perhaps it was designed to route the force through the roof structure rather than through the floor-pan (where legs can be crushed by things being moved under the force of the collision). No matter how good the safety is of any given car, there will inevitably be times when the passenger cell has to absorb some of the impact and perhaps the design on that occasion was such to route that impact through the roof.

There was another agency, other than NCAP that I read about who rate car safety, but they do it on the basis of real world crashes, – so as well the physical protection the car offers it also factored in how likely the car is to crash. That can be a mix of the car itself and the people who drive them.

Big 4x4s for instance offer a lot of passenger safety, however they are also more likely to crash, partly because they handle badly and partly because drivers feel safer in them and take bigger risks as result.

It also revealed the effect of age – so it revealed how safe a car is 10 years down the line compared to when it rolled off the production line – and how a bit of fatigue and corrosion can undermine a car’s integrity in a crash

Trouble is – I can’t remember what that other agency was

quite a few cars i wouldn’t consider purchasing because the ped’ rating is low even for some new models (now rolled into head line figure to diguise it and cos’ not that many people care especially the auto press)

ps espace here 5* and no not that reliable but daughter has medical condition that means broken bones/shock are life threatening and you can get a tandem in with 3 seats still in back

edit wouldn’t discount any 4* cars need to look at detail

I have to say that video has had an effect on my plans to get a Discovery of that type (but the face lifted one). Maybe I will wait a bit longer and get a newer one.

Ignoring the slightly dubious ‘it’s so nimble it could avoid the accident anyway’ scenario – which doesn’t work if you’re sandwiched on a motorway, or hit from the side by another car

Don’t ignore it – it’s significant. Not in all situations, but you don’t choose which situation you crash in do you? Passenger deaths per mile is the only stat that’s important, because it doesn’t depend on how many accidents actually happen. If cars really are nimble and avoid accidents, this won’t appear in crash stats.

And a small car would help if you are side-swiped. Your car would move out of the way instead of being deformed.

it’s significant

problem is though people get confused with “accelerating out of danger” – forgetting they are in a powerful car they accelerate into spaces and then drive less than the car length of “a small nimble car” behind the vehicle in front – this of course would be safe in a small nimble car, as is accelerating out of danger in a car that is more powerful than you’ve got – confusing the two seems to be oh so easy

I think accelerating out of danger is a bit of a myth. No car is fast enough to be useful at that, and they can all brake much much quicker than they can accelerate. Spurious attempt at justifying more powerful engines imo.

I had a Mk1 focus that was 4* IIRC, but in retrospect I didn’t think it was very safe, only 2 airbags and no ABS or ESP

no ABS

You sure? I would have thought by then ABS was a legal requirement on all new cars?

Looking at the NCAP rating is a must.

Think also of expenditure of good tires for the car, have a look at some of the tests a Continetal sport contact against a Linglong – Budget tire could mean the difference between life or death and prevent the accident happening in the first place.