Do you guys feel safe driving your Moggy??

[jagnut66]

this sums it up for sure...

[MCYorks]

I think our cars are more solid than some of the modern cars,

This is absolutely not the case, the effect of Euro NCP has made a 30mph accident into something solid something that people walk away from. If you ever get to look at the monocoque of the modern vehicle there is reinforcement after reinforcement in all the critical areas, designed crumple zones and other sacrificial parts of the structure.

To see the difference this has made, see the famous Rover 100 crash test that made the front page of The Sun in the 90s:

To be fair, the Rover 100 aka Austin MiniMetro, was designed in the late 70's as a cheap car to replace the Mini. It certainly wasn't designed to pass the Euro NCAP test devised 17 years later. I'd be surprised if any car from 1980 would have scored particularly well in that test

As they've made crash tests more extreme, so manufacturers have had to improve vehicle design and build, to get good ratings. Crumple zones, multiple airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, high strength alloy steels, etc. You'll never get all those in an old vehicle.

That said, unfortunately people still get killed in modern cars, even with all the technology and safety features. There's always some risk with every activity. I suppose if you were that worried, then you would never travel in any vehicle, ever!

I've managed to find a period photo of a Morris Minor Series II crash. The car has taken a serious off-set impact, yet the drivers door and sill are still perfectly aligned. Plus the windscreen is intact and there's no apparent roof distortion. Certainly appears sturdy, although probably not safe in the modern sense. However, I'm not sure I like the position of the steering wheel! Suppose that shows the benefits of seat belts and the later Minor 1000's dished 'safety' steering wheel

[mikec4193]

Seeing that solid shaft steering column sticking way up above the dash...that is stuff that is never fun to recover from...

But yes that is exactly what I was thinking about when I started this thread...

But then there is the old adage "When it is your time to go...it is your time to go"....

My thought as I rebuild my old heap is I probably wont drive more it once or twice before I sell it...

I want to get it to run and stop again but driving it down the highway in the greater Mechanicville New York part of the world...I don't think that would be a smart move for me...

I am having fun cutting and grinding and welding...

Keeps me out of the bar room for sure...

Thanks for all the insight folks...you guys are an awesome group on here...

MikeC

[dp]

Here's a Saxo, for comparison :

https://youtu.be/9a8PTeFDaYU

Safest thing seems to be to drive that yellow thing with the lump of concrete on the front then. It's been in loads of those NCAP videos and always seems to come out unscathed.

[dp]

There are so many factors at play. For example motorbikes are still sold and probably not much safer in a collision than 1940s motorbikes - a Minor is a bit safer than those.

In most if not all of inner London the speed limit is 20mph. With traffic, the actual speed is often even less so if you drive there maybe not such a danger. Similarly the Highlands or North Yorkshire where you seldom meet another car.

Then psychologically, a Minor stands out as something unusual so perhaps avoids a smidsy as it might awaken the other driver from their daydream while listening to radio 2 and thinking of their tax return. It's harder to day dream in an older car where you get the feedback from the road and all the other squeaks if something isn't quite right.

I'm not trying to argue that Minors are safer but that perhaps the margin in actual conditions that a Minor encounters isn't so great.

[Monty-4]

That makes sense to me, there are factors that make it safer - standing out, being driven defensively, not being the target of road rage because it's too cute - as well as the obvious structural things that greatly increase the danger if an accident does happen. The name of the game is accident avoidance.

If they were death-traps perhaps our car and life insurance premiums would reflect it, as they do for motorcyclists.