2nd Christmas fatality involves Defender towing trailer.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

I'm aware of the study that that stuff comes from. It is interesting. On the positive side it samples a large number of crashes. On the downside for the cars with lower volumes it is likely to be less accurate.

One unique aspect of it is that by it's nature it in some way takes into account the vehicles usage. For example, the fact that the defender came out best probably shows that people who drive them are sensible careful people that don't blast around in them like sports cars. However you could also argue that there are many more cruisers and patrols etc that are in heavy service in remote areas on dirt roads, and their figures are probably distorted in a negative way by that. Interestingly the Isuzu Trooper gets a mention. They were never sold new to my knowledge in Aus.

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As has been pointed out, the study is a UK one. When I drove through country roads in Britain I saw about 5-10 land rovers for any other make of 4x4.

I am sure there are some confounding factors based on the nature of the driver of a particular vehicle type. However, I think it highlights the differences between standardised crash testing and real world crashes quite well.

Lardcruisers and Patrols are actually rare in many parts of thd world, compared with Landies. The only Lardcruisers I saw in Asia belonged to the UN and Patrols were non-existent. I think Aust is the number 2 market for Lardcruisers after Japan.

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Originally Posted by isuzurover

As has been pointed out, the study is a UK one. When I drove through country roads in Britain I saw about 5-10 land rovers for any other make of 4x4.

I am sure there are some confounding factors based on the nature of the driver of a particular vehicle type. However, I think it highlights the differences between standardised crash testing and real world crashes quite well.

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Fair enough. These type of things lag, and I'm sure you'll find that when the newer safer cars start finding their way into results the older designs will slip down the list. Also note that in the UK the average car is far smaller than it is here which does favour the big cars.


Without consumer crash testing we'd still be in the situation of manufacturers telling us how safe their cars were while doing nothing about it. I think there would have been a really big difference to what we have now. But without these consumer tests you would never have known.

It would be interesting to know how safe the design is of the Disco 3 and 4.

sorry duplicate post!

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

It would be interesting to know how safe the design is of the Disco 3 and 4.

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Four star - quite a good result.

I was unable to find a test result for the D2.

I might be fortunate but I have walked away from having two series 2A stn wgns demolished by front end accidents. The first one was when I was stopped waiting to make a rh turn into my workplace. The driver of the car that hit me thought I was turning across in front of her and she swerved across onto my side of the road. She admitted to driving in excess of 90 km/h at the time of impact. The only damage to my 2A was a bent chassis rail and was written off. Her car disintegrated back to the firewall.The second was similar with another lady driver straightening out on a curve with the sun in her face. Both vehicles were doing around 60km/h head on. Same damage and same result. B****. THEY WERE BOTH GOOD VEHICLES. Jim

There was an Australian version of real life crashes being studied back around 1993/4.

It listed the top ten safest cars. Only one 4X4 made it and this was the Range Rover. I was chuffed as I had just bought mine.

Also in the top 10 was Ford Fairlane which also made me happy as SWMBO had one. So both our car were in the top 10.

Dave.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

Fair enough. These type of things lag, and I'm sure you'll find that when the newer safer cars start finding their way into results the older designs will slip down the list. Also note that in the UK the average car is far smaller than it is here which does favour the big cars.


Without consumer crash testing we'd still be in the situation of manufacturers telling us how safe their cars were while doing nothing about it. I think there would have been a really big difference to what we have now. But without these consumer tests you would never have known.

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I think your argument is somewhat moot. E.g. I am sure the M class and A class mercs would score better in crash tests than the defender. However the M class was equal and the A class was inferior in the UK study.