Are bigger cars safer than smaller cars?

[Horsepower]

Automatically, most would say yes..

but, think again.

[CVT]

Thanks for sharing bro.

The magic of the crumple zone!

5505:home:

[Bogeyman]

Anyone who thinks it's all about size should try pitting a Chery V5 against a Mercedes B-Class.

[deedee]

the test is bias.if you cant compare an "old" big car to a "new" small car cause the safety features and parts used arent as advance as the new cars.
try pitting a dodge charger for a big car to a honda civic.both 06 model so atleast the parts and safety features and engineering is onpar to each other.

heres a good example..i drive an 00 expedition and it was last winter,i rearended a honda accord(maybe 30 model) i was going maybe 20MPH on an icy road and my truck just slid as i applied my brakes so itried to swerved to my left to avoid the car but still ended up clipping the left corner bumper of the car.
result......the corner bumper of the accord had a fistfull size indententation while my front right bumper had 2 X 5-6 inch scrathes.(pencil size scratches tha was easily buffed out)
while my insurance had to pay the repair for the accord that cost roughly 1200 dollars.

[mbeige]

This has been discussed before.

Stiffer but lighter materials used and better engineering of crumple zones and junction points in the vehicle structure all add up to its overall safety level as well as to its crashworthiness. This allows manufacturers to create smaller, but safer, vehicles that are not only city-friendly on tight parking spaces but also more efficient than their predecessors.

[Memphis Raines]

This has been a long standing debate as far as I can remember.

The conclusion has always been linked to a vehicle's structural integrity with the appropriate passenger restraint systems. In the video feature above, we saw no less than a Volvo, supposedly one of the safest vehicles in the world, figure in this disturbing outcome.

So it is easy to see that build quality and proper design is always the bottomline to vehicle's crashworthiness, not the eminent heft.

[niky]

It's an old Volvo, note.

The conclusion, though, is valid. Many people think that a 5-star small car is still unsafe compared to a three or four star large car (or even one with no crash data, like some bigger trucks here), simply because there is more metal to absorb the crash force. Which is largely bullsh*t. As we can see here, it's where the car shunts the crash force that's important. If the crash force goes in one end and goes out the other, all good. If it overloads any of the safety-cell structure and transfers that force to occupants... R.I.P.

What EuroNCAP measures is not just airbag use, but deformation of the crash structure... the details of which are listed on their site. The Renault shown above suffers no footwell deformation, while some late-model Ford trucks (not current... crash tests for new US trucks are pretty good), as well as the new Nissan Navarra, have suffered safety-cell deformations in crash tests, which can injure occupants.