tinyurl.com/6gdvjqp
Photos (don't worry, no-one hurt) of a Freelander v BMW competition. While, at first sight, you may think the Freelander came off best, maybe they just didn't bother with crumple zones quite as much as BMW did?
John
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I'd prefer to be in the BMW - looks like it had quite a gentle stop. Interesting that the airbags deployed in the Freelander but not in the BMW, suggesting that it is indeed the safer place to be.
Suspect that it might be a lot messier if the Freelander hit something equally solid.
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Why assume the Freelander is not as safe?
Its driver walked away, same as the guy in his BMW.
Deployment of airbags will be down to the individual vehicle and its reaction to the crash.
The BMW's impact point was head-on, the Freelander's was its offside corner.
There are simply too many variables and differences to draw any conclusions.
If the Freelander had crumpled up like the BMW, no doubt people would be on here saying it was badly made.
But in the case of the BMW, it must be brilliant design, musn't it?
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>> But in the case of the BMW, it must be brilliant design, musn't it?
Yes. Spot on iffy.
Those land rovers fair suffered once that blue oval company started dabbling ;-)
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Apparently the OSF of the Freelander hit the BMW in the centre front, if the chassis rail of the Freelander took the brunt of it then not surprising the result.
Family E46 3 series had a very minor 10 mph front end shunt, that too turned out to be very soft and much damage resulted.
On the other hand years ago a neigbour left the road and went airborne at high speed into a forest in his square 80's BMW 323i, every panel wrecked but ultimately a very tough shell that stayed in shape, he walked away.
Crumple zones probably work in favour of the occupants in 99% of cases, but there can be exceptions.
Several years ago SWM took a set of railings out at about 50mph with my Landcruiser, no airbags, no crumple zones, zilch.
In other words it was basically a battering ram, and because of that it just went straight through taking the railings clean out incuding the concrete blocks they were attached to underground, the bull bar and front bumper bent taking the whole force, but nothing else moved a fraction, though the vehicle was written off due to suspected axle damage from going over the concrete blocks.
In this case the rigid high ground clearance design saved her, though she'd just missed the back of a truck before the crash...if she'd hit the truck the outcome could have been very different.
Don't be too hard on her, her driving is normally swift and competent, she'd been stung by some nasty flying insect minutes before and hadn't realised she'd had an allergic reaction, ended up with her foot trapped under the brake and pushing on the throttle just before a roundabout.
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i would rather have been in the bm than the brick on wheels
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As I've just bought one, I'll stick up for the Freelander. At least the Freelander driver would have been able to drive on. I suspect the BM's radiator would have got holed by something!
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depending on what year/model you have just purchased i will leave my options open as to whether you chose wise glasshopper
;-)
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New 2011 SD4
Last edited by: Telb on Mon 7 Feb 11 at 14:23
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Freelander v BMW - Fursty Ferret
