Saw this the other day when collecting some bits we had sent to the spray shop. Not quite sure what it hit but as you can see it was rather substantial. The thing that stands out for me is the vast difference between this car and the black Sport to the left of it. The velars doors were all in line and could be opened with no problems. All the body gaps were perfectly aligned and there was no obtrusions in to the cabin.
The sport was hit at about 30 from the side and it was in a bit of a state, doors opened but not easily and the whole car was a misaligned mess. The Sport was a 2012 MY btw so not that old.
You can say what you want about modern vehicles but I know where I’d rather be in the event of the unthinkable
Nasty impact that, modern cars are much better at protecting the cabin.
A few years ago my Mazda Estate got rear ended, I think the guy was doing somewhere between 35-45mph, car in front of me hit the brakes, I did the same and the Jaguar driver was looking at his friends house and didn’t see us brake, think my tow bar helped mash his front end!!
A bit of T-Cut and that'll quickly polish out. ;-)
As you say, new cars are a much safer place to be than ones from even 10 years ago.
Also, the rule of "size matters", which lead to the proliferation of big 4x4s goes out the window IMHO - In the event of an accident, I rather be in a new mid-size hatch (i.e Golf/Focus) than an large old 4x4 (pre-2010), though preferably, I rather be a large new 4x4! :-)
And I say that as someone that drives a 21 year old, 8-seater Landcruiser as a daily driver/family car for the last 16-17 years.
Last edited by vagabond; 12th September 2020 at 16:35.
Driving around Doha, I often see the aftermath of accidents on the side of the roads, and my constant thread is, look at that passenger compartment. THe doors still open! Side glass intact!
Modern cars are amazing.
Mind you some older cars are pretty good. I had a '71 Chevy Monte Carlo and a vauxhall Victor FE taxi drove through a red light so I hit him side on in the front wing. Oil and water all over the floor from his car and the bonnet concertina'd up in the middle. Wrote it off. Only damage to the chevy was a slightly creased wing which had been pushed by his car folding around the bumper. Insurance paid for a new wing and paint and it was sorted. Helped in no small way that the car had a solid bumper which you could actually jack the car up on!
Not mine but same year.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
I understand that the Velar was struck whilst stationary by an incorrectly-returned Waitrose shopping trolley which had been caught by a light breeze & had rolled across the carpark. Eyewitnesses report that the impact speed of the trolley may have been as high as 4mph.Originally Posted by Franky Four Fingers
JLR products, eh!
______
Jim.
They don't do so well on the M11. Not even the Vogue is safe from JLR engineering.
Crumple zones don't prevent spontaneous combustion ;-)
Add to the fact that’s a P38 body and at the very least is all most 18 years old
A friend of mine drove a Volvo V70 in his late 20’s and I asked him why he drove such an ‘old mans car’. His response was along the lines of ‘when you’ve seen all the motorway pile-ups and fatal accidents I have over the years, and the only car people got out of relatively unharmed (both the general public and our officers) is a Volvo, then you buy one’ (He was a police officer part of whose job was to attend and investigate fatal accidents) In fact he was so convincing, when we had kids I bought one too. Luckily I never had to test their ability in an accident but I certainly felt a bit safer!
I think most modern safety technology we see today wasn’t created by Volvo but they seem to have embraced and improved all aspects of it. Of course they were credited with the 3 point safety belt which has doubtless saved millions
Sort of a pointless contribution, so apologies, but I recently saw a very new looking Lamborghini 4x4 type car being towed that had been involved in a major front end impact; looked thoroughly mashed up. I imagine a very expensive fix, if it wasn’t written off Completely. No schadenfreude whatsoever; just genuinely felt bad for the owner!
I’m sure I once read that the Volvo XC90 was the only car to have 0 fatal crashes recorded in the UK since it’s launch. Someone might correct me but I’ll try and find the article.
Impressive.
If only it had decent reliability.
Probably because it is one of the most boring cars ever created. The thrills derived from driving the motoring equivalent of a Welsh dresser mean they rarely exceed 40mph.
I appreciate things have moved on with the XC90 over the years, but an extract below from Clarksons recent review of teh 'hybrid' version:
'Oh, and just in case you are thinking that it must be fitted with the sort of engine that you’d normally expect to find in a tin opener, consider this: it’ll do 0-62mph in 5.6 seconds. It’s as fast off the line, therefore, as a Ferrari 348.'
https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/the-clarkson-review-2016-volvo-xc90-t8-twin-engine-inscription/
I just got one and find it ridiculously fast and fun to drive but I don't really know anything about cars.
Cars these days are all about 0-62 times and max speeds, when ever the most mundane tin box can do 100 MPH and a Golf is as fast as an F40, it's all academic...
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
I doubt anyone buying a XC90 has its 1/4 mile drag-strip time at the forefront of their mind.
My last car was an AWD XC60 D5 and I’m afraid you’d be wrong there - for such a big car it had a decent turn of speed and mid range power was always there under your right foot for sensible overtaking. It also never had a single issue in my nearly 4 years of ownership - actually it was not an easy car to drive slowly. Safe doesn’t have to mean slow!
I've got an XC60 here in Qatar, and it makes me smile to hear it described as "such a big car"! But I agree - mine's just a turbo FWD, but it's very quick for a small family car.
Yes, I’m sure it was a thrill a minute!
I had to drive a new Range Rover earlier in the year and it just confirmed I'd have had to have given up on life - and especially driving for fun - to ever consider buying one.
"A man of little significance"
I have just handed back a brand new Range Rover Vouge SE which was loaned to me for a week while a fault with my Velar was being fixed. I much prefer the way my Velar drives compared to the 'full fat' Vogue version.
Driving and fun in the same sentence are non sensical to me. Driving has to be the most dull and Frustrating part of normal day to day life, surely?
Depends on what you live for!
I love driving almost anything almost anywhere, even when I used to have to commute up the M3 every day I enjoyed it. Give me the keys to something designed specifically to be big and heavy and I rapidly lose interest though. I suspect there's a strong correlation between people not interested or scared of driving and ownership of large SUVs. Cars don't have to be big and heavy to be strong and safe, once a four-seat car is back below 1,000kg I think a lot of people will find out driving can actually be fun. Although possibly not on motorways. That could just be me.
- - - Updated - - -
Out of interest, what do you drive?
- - - Updated - - -
"A man of little significance"
I love driving my 2.6 tonne Discovery 4 as much as my 1 tonne Lotus m100. Different cars for different purposes. Both great!
Something cheap, small, 8 years old with a Ford badge on it!
But I’ve been toying with buying a SUV !! But I just can’t get my head around spending money on a car... to me (and I do realise everyone is different) it’s dead money, hence I try to get 10-15 years out of each cheap car I buy.
Perhaps if I did splurge, I’d catch the bug?
Last edited by ach5; 15th September 2020 at 08:55.
Bangernomics rock. Why buy an SUV though?
"A man of little significance"
Despite my disinterest in cars, I do keeping looking with admiration at the Audi Q3 and Q5 and think they look great. I don’t know why but I just feel like a SUV style car next time I buy one. Maybe because I’ve always had such small cars. I also like the look of the Audi estate ( sorry no idea which model, but the one with the curvy rear end!). But, as I always buy outright in cash, the thought of handing over that much cash “just for a car” just stops me every single time.
You don’t buy a Volvo for thrills, you buy it to drive your family around/work/trips to the dump etc. Not thrilling, but real life - something I’ve never really understood about the fantasy world petrolheads inhabit tbh!
Last edited by RobDad; 15th September 2020 at 21:37.
Exactly! Your username says it all!
It's not a fantasy world - you clearly buy what you buy, as do others.
I have never included 'trips to the dump' in my wish list.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Actually my username has nothing whatsoever with fatherhood, and the Volvo wasn’t my only car either so it’s all a bit moot I’m afraid. I can’t be surmised from a post on the internet!
Eh? Sorry you lost me there. A wish list for what? Stuff to do with your car?
What you said, when you replace your car.
Last edited by Chris_in_the_UK; 16th September 2020 at 00:04.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Yes, like going to the tip.
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