The German ADAC has crash tested a Q7 and a Fiat 500 at 40 mph:
tinyurl.com/5h55ax
I know which car I would prefer to be in. In the statistics for the dummies in the 500, the two children in the back and the driver would have suffered a "high" level of injury, in the Q7 only moderate injury to the driver.
BIG
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But which car do you think this suggests shouldn't be on the road? The Q7 or the 500?
I reckon if you drove the Q7 into something similarly larger to it, it would suffer in much the same way as the 500 did here.
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To be fair, the ADAC does recommend that larger vehicles be made more compliant with the lateral supports being less stiff. Also, a cross brace should be incorporated to stop the larger vehicle riding up over the smaller one.
Edited by Brit_in_Germany on 24/07/2008 at 16:02
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>>But which car do you think this suggests shouldn't be on the road? The Q7 or the 500?
I don't think it suggests either shouldn't be on the road. It's good reminder that good NCAP ratings mean diddley-squat if you hit something big enough and going fast enough.
Edited by nick on 24/07/2008 at 16:44
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What annoys me with NCAP is when someone uses the ratings to compare cars from different classes. A EURO NCAP 5 super-mini is not as safe as a EURO NCAP 5 family car. And Top Gear make this incorrect comparison a lot.
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It looks like the 500 doesn't do too bad, but it's very hard to tell what forces were acting on the passengers from the pictures.
There are other ways of looking at this though. If this collision was real and everybody died in the 500, the Q7 driver probably wouldn't be so happy. What would you rather be, a murderer or the victim or a murder?
Anyway, the 500 is probably much more fun, and looks much better, so it'd be an easy decision for me!
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When I have been next to a Q7 in a car park I cannot believe (a) how big it is overall and (b) how big the bonnet is. I'm average height but if that ran into me then a large frontal area has just all crashed into me.
I am still surprised how well the hire Fiesta car fared against an HGV coming into the back of us in 2006.
Maybe a test for the Q7 would be running head on into an HGV? A fairer comparison for a Q7 driver than a little 500.
I'd prefer a 500 anyday too.
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Since the launch I have seen the grand total of one Q7 on the road. I think HJ is at greater risk of being hit by a Volvo C30 than a Q7.
They may become a more common sight now that prices have dropped below 25k for a March 2007 3.0TDi.
No real news in this story though, let's bring together 2.5 tonnes and 1.1 tonnes at 35mph and look in horror at the resultant damage to the smaller mass.
Edited by gmac on 24/07/2008 at 21:52
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Hang around outside any private school and you will see plenty of Q7s. I recently saw three queuing up to turn into our local one - all were black, all were 3.0TDIs, all had one small child in the back.
Edited by AlastairW on 24/07/2008 at 21:58
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Laws of physics still apply to Audi shocker. Hideous vehicles.
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all were black all were 3.0TDIs all had one small child in the back.
How could you tell ? No gangster black windows in the back?
The shame of being delivered to school in a poverty spec. Q7. The little darlings will be in therapy for years...
Edited by Webmaster on 25/07/2008 at 01:44
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How soon before a personal injury lawyer picks this up and claims extra damages from another driver just because they chose to drive a ridiculously large car - like a Q7.
And then there is the psychological pain and suffering inflicted on others by putting such a hideous car on the road - must be worth something.
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How soon before a personal injury lawyer picks this up and claims extra damages from another driver just because they chose to drive a ridiculously large car - like a Q7.
Some years ago in America, there was an attempted lawsuit against (I think) Toyota by a product liability lawyer. The accusation was that Toyotas were too small to be fit for purpose and thereby put their owners' lives at risk. In a country which, until recently, was chock full of huge ladder frame chassis SUVs, there is a kind of perverted logic to this. I don't know what the outcome was though and I can't find the link any more.
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This article is a master class in stating the flippin' obvious!
Judging by the erratic and aggressive way many of these big SUVs are driven, it's quite clear that many of their drivers couldn't care two hoots about other road users. Therefore, I can't see how research like this is going to influence their decision one way or another. As long as their kids are safe, to hell with everyone else's, right?
I actually respect cars like the Q7, Cayenne and X5 as pieces of engineering, and the way in which their designers manage to get a half decent drive out of something with every counter-productive physical attribute imaginable - high C of G, gargantuan weight and balloon tyres being just three that spring to mind. Why anyone would be so apparently clueless that they'd walk past an RS6 Avant, AMG E55 or an M5 Touring to get to a top of the line model though.... that's a different matter.
Cheers
DP
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