Cabriolet owners – please answer these questions

[wemorgan]

Cabriolet owners – please answer these questions.

For my personal interest I’ve a quick few questions for past/present/future cabriolet owners.

When buying your cabriolet car do you consider the crash safety of it?
If not specifically EuroNCAP tested do you look at the hard top equivalent and make a judgement as to the cabriolet’s crash safety?

Please answer the poll question.

I expect the crash safety of my cabriolet to be:

1. Better than the hard top version
2. The same as the hard top version
3. Worse than the hard top version

 

[Igurisu]

I voted "same", this is based on the fact that I don't ever expect to be able to flip CLK over on to its roof.

 

[Will]

I think you'd be surprised - however people answer to the poll, this is a question that many (most?) people won't have asked at purchase time.

Nice to know that whatever car you're driving is safe, but I expect most people forget and are more bothered about what colour paint/spec/engine/badge etc a particular car has

 

[MD5]

I'm not sure how other manufacturers stand up, but I was aware of MB's standards before I bought my 129 SL, which was a landmark in topless history safety. As for protection when you are upside down, you are more likely to make contact with the tarmac without the insulation of a roof, so I'd take a fatalistic view and not worry about comparisons over and above what I knew already.

I'm sure it will have been posted here before, but the clip below shows a 129 rolling on an autobahn, which the driver walks away from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-2O7W44-Z4

 

[wemorgan]

The roll over scenario is one clear difference between a hard and oft top.
Would any owners expect a difference in a front or side crash?

 

[MD5]

The roll over scenario is one clear difference between a hard and oft top.
Would any owners expect a difference in a front or side crash?

I think a more valid question, in that case, would be manufacturer comparisons. In the upright position, there should be no difference. I had the misfortune a couple of summers ago of being the passenger in the car below, which was originally travelling in the opposite direction on other side of the road, when the driver lost control and we hit a tree, spinning us 180*. Thankfully, the airbags and seat belts (integral to the seats) did their job, but I still hurt in places. I don't know how I would have come out of other cars made in the same era, and my own later (96) SL also has airbags in the doors.

 

[Mr. B]

"It's had one careful owner Sir and a couple of stone chips touched up on the bonnet Sir"
He said in his soft irish accent.

 

[BTB 500]

Difficult question to answer if there is no hard top version of your cabriolet (e.g. SL, SLK)!

 

[redbaron]

It will be pretty much the same except for a "piercing" scenario which is clearly easier on a soft top...

I would expect it is an irrelevant question as if crash (impact) safety was you number one priority you would not be looking at sports cars but SUV's. If however you were looking at avoiding the crash in the first place.....

 

[rigel]

MD5, glad to hear you were OK after that not so little incident.

What was the impact damage like to the cabin?

Do you have a picture taken from the side of the car or inside the cabin?

would like to know how the footwells finished up after that.

 

[BTB 500]

It will be pretty much the same except for a "piercing" scenario which is clearly easier on a soft top...

I would expect it is an irrelevant question as if crash (impact) safety was you number one priority you would not be looking at sports cars but SUV's. If however you were looking at avoiding the crash in the first place.....

A carbrio bodyshell is less rigid though (no bracing above the door openings). They put in reinforcing beams nowadays to offset this, but it still won't respond to an impact in the same way as a tin top.

Also of course not all carbrios are sports cars ... far from it in fact.

 

[wemorgan]

Difficult question to answer if there is no hard top version of your cabriolet (e.g. SL, SLK)!

Very true. I wonder then whether buyers assume a similar level of safety being offered across the brand's other vehicles.

It will be pretty much the same except for a "piercing" scenario which is clearly easier on a soft top...

That's your expectations, and possibly that of other buyers, rather than the facts.

For example, is the 4-door E-class even the same platform as the cabriolet E-class?

I would expect it is an irrelevant question as if crash (impact) safety was you number one priority you would not be looking at sports cars but SUV's.

To some people crash safety is just part of the mix that makes up their car buying decision.

 

[grober]

I reckon 2 seater sports with roll over protection bucket seats and a short passenger compartment= marginal. 4 seater cabriolet pretty lethal even with intelligent roll over protection as this short clip illustrates. [YOUTUBE]K6h7wqLqJ0U&feature=endscreen&NR=1[/YOUTUBE]

 

[ChuckyYeager]

After watchig that Mini roll over in the video posted by Wemorgan , there goes my dream of buying an SLK for the summer

 

[redbaron]

For example, is the 4-door E-class even the same platform as the cabriolet E-class?

Of course it isn't as the E coupe and Cab are built on the w204 platform :roll eyes:

 

[grober]

The problem with cabriolets in a roll over situation is either partial ejection of car occupants or forceable intrusion of objects into the theoretical " safety envelope" afforded by the windscreen surround [often heavily re-inforced] and roll bars at the rear. As can be seen from the video this often not achieved adequately due to the huge forces generated in a roll over situation. Improvements in car safety design would indicate that in a conventional offset frontal crash situation [ without rollover] a well constructed cabriolet would suffer very little more damage than a conventional closed vehicle. Saab 9-3 Convertible | Euro NCAP - For safer cars crash test safety rating

 

[wemorgan]

Of course it isn't as the E coupe and Cab are built on the w204 platform :roll eyes:

You know that - how many owner's know that?

Few I predict. I suspect they buy an E-coupe / cabriolet expecting similar engineering to the saloon.

Improvements in car safety design would indicate that in a conventional offset frontal crash situation [ without rollover] a well constructed cabriolet would suffer very little more damage than a conventional closed vehicle.

That's the plan at least. Without EuroNCAP testing of the two varients customers would never know for sure. As far as I can see EuroNCAP has test only a very small number of cabriolets.

 

[MD5]

MD5, glad to hear you were OK after that not so little incident.

What was the impact damage like to the cabin?

Do you have a picture taken from the side of the car or inside the cabin?

would like to know how the footwells finished up after that.

Thanks Rigel. I don't think the interior was too bad. The angle of the car on impact put me head on with the tree, but I don't recall anything penetrating the cabin, which quickly filled with smoke from the engine and powder from the airbags. I was helped out by passers by, and didn't get back in! The driver's seat is the best place to be, as you can brace yourself.

 

[wemorgan]

That's a fair old whack you had. Glad you were all OK in the end.

The roof looks to still fit the a-pillar quite well. Not bad for an old car.

Most EuroNCAP results I've seen show the passenger to fair better than the driver in an offset frontal impact. Quite a few people say they can brace themselves in an impact, but the harsh reality is that it's not possible @ +40g.

 

[Dieselman]

Most EuroNCAP results I've seen show the passenger to fair better than the driver in an offset frontal impact.

Agreed, you just have so much more space and no metal bits moving backwards to spear you.