Here's How Shockingly Far Car Crash Safety Has Come In 20 Years

This video shows a direct comparison between the impact safety of the latest Honda Jazz versus a Rover 100 from 1997, and the difference is astonishing

Matt Kimberley

02 Feb 2017

This is the sort of video that stops you buying a budget banger. Euro NCAP has been testing cars’ crash impact safety for 20 years, and to mark the milestone has released this footage comparing one of its original tests to one of its latest.

Taking two small cars; 1997’s Rover 100 and today’s Honda Jazz, the direct comparison via split-screen footage is a serious reminder of why buying the newest car you can afford is always a safer idea. Unless it’s a Mustang, it seems.

Watch the video and make your own mind up. Let us know whether this film gets you in the feels, or whether you’re just too much of a maverick to care.

Comments

the error here is that 20 some odd years ago, cars were never tested for front quarter impact…..
So they were never reinforced to take such an impact.
It’s like testing a cat on how well it swims.

Automotive engineers design cars to pass current safety standards…. not save lives.

not really an error, as cars could still hit things offset 20 years ago, its showing improved standards, and thats one of the improvments

well at least in 1998 they already did the offset crash. I know that cause I´ve seen a video of my model of car being crash tested that way from back then.

The thing is, that rover is basically just a metro with a facelift and an airbag. The design was already old when the car was built. It depends on the manufacturer too. You are comparing a modern car to late-rover British build quality here… :P For example. A Volvo. Or, for that matter, a 90’s Range Rover vs a Modern SUV. You’d be surprised how well one of those takes a hit. (Experience there)

Now I feel totally safe in my 1992 Civic…

Rovers official response be like: “well….don’t crash then”

interesting to note that Rover 100 was a 17 year old design at the time in 1997 so its really more 1980 vs 2017.

Ohh.. Im driving 25 yrs old BMW 250km/h.. Im lucky that im alive i believe?!

nah man you’re solid.

Nah, whatever. I should improving my driving skill in term of braking and cornering. So, I can avoid that emergency situations.

To be fair, the results would be pretty much the same for any 20 year old car, not just a small hatch. Also, you can see the difference in size between a 20 year old small car and what is called a “small” car these days, the newer ones are much bigger. A Ka is about tha same size as a Mk1 Fiesta and a Fiesta is probably comparable to a Mk3 Escort.

No, plenty of 20 year old cars do pretty much the same as modern cars. At least if you look at premium cars from the time you will see that they perform very much like modern middle class cars in crash tests.