ThE_MysterY_MachinE

Guys & Girlies

I went to test drive a Classic 97' WRX yesterday and I was imporessed with the car allround but I'm bit concerned about the safety of these scoobies.

Can anyone tell me how safe they are in a head on and side impact.

Or where i can get safety details about the car ???

scoobymods

JD Power serv, top gear

robinH20MRV

they dont have the safety of a new age scooby, as they are a lot lighter, but they are comparible to a similar type of car, bear in mind scoobys tend to be driven a lot harder than most, thus hit things harder! we at www.powervehicles.com have seen 3 evos, 1x4, 1x5 and 1x6 wrecked in a three week time span, and they dont take a hit well at all !!!

ThE_MysterY_MachinE

Yep, thats what I suspected. I know the body panels are waffer thin but I want to know if they can still take a hit.
cheers

Brit_in_Japan

They are generally regarded as (sticks wet finger in the air) pretty strong cars. Of course later models of any car have been designed to meet later and more stringent crash test regulations, so if safety is your primary concern then get something new.

Current vehicle crash ratings can be found here .

When it comes to real world crashes with other vehicles then mass counts, so something heavy with large crush zones would be safest..

Then there is the subject of primary safety vs secondary safety. Cars which handle better, have good brakes, 4WD etc give greater safety margin in the event of unforseen events and may help avoid the accident in the first place. This often counts against large heavy cars. Of course if one drives beyond one's or the cars limits, whatever they are, the result is going to be pretty messy.

ThE_MysterY_MachinE

Apart from the performance safety aspects (bigger brakes, better suspension) are there any other safety variations on the classics e.g. would post 96' models have side impact bars that pre 96' would not have.

scooby222

speaking unfortunately from personal experience,i would rate them pretty dam high. i had a 60+mph accident in a my00 which resulted in me rolling through a farm wall,with the roof landing on top of the wall then going right over. both me and my girlfriend walked away without a scratch. bought another as soon as the insurance came through.

Playsatan

iTrader: (2)

As above, my mate rolled a my00 and he said it held togetther pretty well. He bought another one too.

sarasquares

iTrader: (1)

classics dont like posts

Gridlock Mikey

You're an old classic and you have over 12,000 of them

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

In terms of high speed they fare very well. As the actual main structure of the car is quite strong. The main weak point being the A-pillar and floorpan under the front seats - much like many other cars on the road.

What they are abolutely crap at is low speed impacts. Anything above 10mph collision speed on the front end will mash the bonnet, inner bumpers, front valance/x-section, wings, rad, cambelt...and might well write the car off as the cambelt/pulleys get easily damaged meaning it needs engine repairs as well as body/chassis. Same story for the rear of the car. Although the passengers will be perfectly ok...the car will be dead.

Compared to German cars it is very poor, as the impact protection behind the bumpers is very minimal, so the bodywork/chassis takes all the brunt of the impact (fine for high speed, crap for low speed), whereas an Audi A4 for example has impact shock absorbers and quite hefty inner bumper assemblies making damage quite minimal in low speed collision. (the point to this being...its better being 3rd party insured in an Audi than a Scooby )

sarasquares

iTrader: (1)

well thank ewe kindly

its a white wheel thing