Volvo vs Renault crash video
No Saabs involved but this seems important enough to post anyway. It’s a Fifth Gear video found via Autoprophet.
Mass vs modern technology.
Who wins?
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That is very, very interesting.
Surprising result indeed . The Modus seems to be such a rubbish car and the Volvo so solid ! Safety progress is a reality
Not surprising. Was the Volvo even made with crumple zones? ..Doesn’t look like it.
I’d like to see a 240 vs. a C900. From what I’ve seen of crash pictures from the C900 and 9000, they’d stand up well against modern cars.
…very interesting. Still, if you look at the Swedes, they still think, weight counts the most and leight vehicles are just “dödsfarlig”.
The question may be, how would little Modus look like after hitting a Volvo SUV (forgot the name, X-something?).
I wouldn’t really have wanted to be in either of those cars…… I’ll take my 9-3 in a crash, thank you very much!
I think I saw this somewhere else a few weeks ago. It appeared to me that the Volvo had it engine removed prior to the crash. I also read that the frame rails were cut to weaken them. I don’t know how much of that to believe though.
Interesting all the same. Like Mag-X said, C900s and 9000 seem to hold up pretty well. 9000s still have some of the lowest fatality rates (per crash) of any car made, ever.
I’d like to go behind the scenes of that video and see what happened.
~P
The “missing engine and cut frame rails” story was thrown together by a bunch of whiners from the Volvo community. If you freeze-frame the vid you can clearly see the engine in a couple shots, it just got pushed to the left side of the engine bay. The test was 100% legit, new cars are really that much safer than the old ones.
But I understand the old Volvo owners getting bent out of shape about this, remember that “safety” is pretty much the only thing they have to feel good about their cars…
One should keep in mind that “small” Modus is just slightly lighter than the Volvo. I think the weight difference is less than 200 kg. Obesity is not reserved for humans…
Lance, your thoughts on this please…
According to the google, 1450 kg for the Volvo, 1160 kg for the Renault.
I’d love to see a 15 year old Renault vs. a new Volvo.
I remember I checked this a while ago, and the tested models weighed:
Volvo 1380 kg
Renault 1180 kg
If you know what to look for you can see that the Volvo is behaving old school and the Renault new school.
The Volvo has it main support structure at the floor level, similar to a frame built car, like most rear wheel drive cars. This means that a crash tends to push the front up during the impact, which increases the the force against the area of the dashboard. The Renault (and Saabs starting with the 9000) has it main support structure above the the front suspension (placed there by necessity in the 9000 as it didn’t fit below), which means that the front is pushed up instead, which reduces force agains the dashboard area.
The second thing is the robust front beam, a thing it shares with modern Saabs (and, some Volvo 240s!). But, the Renault seem to be fairly stiff, and would most likely make a big dent if it hit a 9000 as well.
I think that if they had tried a 9000 and a Modus, the cars probably would have deflected more, and the damage would have been more balanced, but as the 9000 is most likely a lot softer than the Modus, I’m not sure the 9000s higher weight and longer crumbling zone would compensate for the Modus stiffness. Try to avoid hitting Moduses…
Just remember this is just one test, the real world is a lot more complex than this. For example, if there they were hitting a full grown elk head on, I’m positive that the Volvo would come out on top.
I wouldn’t really classify the Modus as a Supermini. A Clio is a mini. Does Renault make a Supermini? Its more like 2 generations of family car colliding.
I would love to see this with modern Volvos & Saabs. Or, two 5 star cars, one big, one small.
On a personal note, safety is a big one for me. My wife is a leadfooted driver and one of my key considerations is to put her & the kids in the safest car I can afford. I sold a Toyota for this reason. No stab. control and minimal airbags. She even manages to get our X5 sideways sometimes! This is with 19″ wheels, great tyres, stability control & 4WD. The Modus wouldn’t have a chance.
Food for thought.
Note that the Volvo cost one-quarter of the cost of the Renault.
One of the things that helps the Renault to be stiffer is the lower weight. It has lower momentum and thus lower forces acting on the structure from that direction.
One of the downsides of the “stiffness” of the Renault: the car “bounces” from the impact. If you notice, mass does “win” the impact — the Volvo doesn’t move off line much at all. However, the Renault is off the pavement and travelling away from the impact point in nearly the opposite direction from which it entered. Whiplash city.
Still, better to bounce than to be crushed.
PT: An X5 is still an SUV with all of the accompanying handling issues.
I noticed the bounce as well. That would be heavy for kids. Adults even. Perhaps if the test was repeated with a current V70 we would see mass winning hands down. Aslo, the Modus is quite an upright design where the 940 is long. Much harder to bounce or roll long cars.
EnG - you’re right on the SUV call but, as SUVs go , an X5 is better sorted dynamically than most with a lower centre of gravity etc. Its more a comment on my wifes speed than the car. I can’t even get it to break traction.
PT, your wife needs a Peterbilt.
PT, I hope your wife doesn’t kill someone else “getting her X5 sideways”.
Thanks for the thoughts Ken & Robin but my portrayal above is only part of the story. She prefers smaller cars (drives our Saab most of the time - the X5 is mine) and saves the speeding for suitably empty roads.
Moreover, remove the words X5 from my posts and replace them with TurboX. Sounds like quite a lot of us here doesn’t it ?
On a similar theme, I was speaking with a local tyre dealer last night and he admitted complete disrespect for the large numbers of men who buy the best tyres they can afford for their car and the cheapest possible for their wife’s, justifying it by saying that “she can’t tell the difference” or “its just the missus & the kids”. What a tragic way to think.
The most important thing about getting into a car is getting out again.