c'mon Chris, regardless of personal experiance (or whatever "special" circumstances meant that car survided a 44 ton lorry) , you know damn well you would rather have your offspring in an NCAP5 car than a n-reg corsa..... you spend your working day on the road as much as I do, so must see as many crashes as I do, and a Nreg corsa wouldn't stand up at all against an NCAP 5 car.........

c'mon Chris, regardless of personal experiance (or whatever "special" circumstances meant that car survided a 44 ton lorry) , you know damn well you would rather have your offspring in an NCAP5 car than a n-reg corsa..... you spend your working day on the road as much as I do, so must see as many crashes as I do, and a Nreg corsa wouldn't stand up at all against an NCAP 5 car.........

My point is that just because a car has a good NCAP score doesn't mean it's safe in a crash (look at the Roomster!) and just because a car has a low NCAP score doesn't mean it's bad in a crash. I don't get hung up on NCAP scores as they are 2 tests at specific speeds at specific angles, as well as a few tick boxes for lights on the dash and airbags in silly places. I'd much rather have a look at owner's forums and see the outcome of real world crashes for a more accurate perspective.

The Corsa was a strong car and proved that in a real world crash (at motorway speeds) so I'm happy to recommend it and would be happy for my daughter to drive one (assuming she was 17 ). FWIW, the Panda tested by EuroNCAP is only 3 stars so it seems like I am happy for my offspring to be carted around in a death trap after all :P

Btw, shouldn't we be promoting not crashing

Chris

Of course we should be promoting not crashing, but as much as we all try to be safe and sensible drivers, **** happens and i would rather be as safe as possible when it does.

**** happens and i would rather be as safe as possible when it does.

But you're defining safety as the results of a crash test that occurs at 40mph head on, 30mph into the side and gives points for having a few warning lights, esp and airbags scattered around? What happens if someone rear ends you - is your car safe in that scenario? What if you roll the car? What if you crash at 70mph? Maybe the car can't handle any of those as it's been engineered to play the NCAP game?

Safety is a great marketing ploy these days....

Chris

Here's the point where I mention Folksam ratings, where NCAP 2* "deathtraps" achieve 4* and 5* ratings in real world crashes (and I think there's an NCAP 5* that only gets 3* real world).

Oh yeah, and most cars don't have stealth electroniccy systems to fool people into thinking "gosh I really controlled that" when it was the system that controlled it.

Edited 3 October, 200817 yr by KenONeill

Thanks for that link, Ken. Comparing the 93-02 Nissan Micra (NCAP 2*), 93-99 Corsa (NCAP 2*) and 00- Fabia (NCAP 4*) is interesting!

Chris

My eldest daughter (18) runs around in V reg Micra. Cheap to run and insurance for the next year (will be 1 year no claims, and soley in her name) will drop from £900 down to £500). We bought her the Micra as apart from being reliable they were cheap to insure as opposed to a Fiesta or Corsa of similar age/value (which she has to pay for). Insurance will be the killer on many cars.

Old Polos are cheap and solid.

Corsa maybe not so good as insurance for kids is expensive as so pany of them smash them up.

Micra.

My eldest daughter (18) runs around in V reg Micra. Cheap to run and insurance for the next year (will be 1 year no claims, and soley in her name) will drop from £900 down to £500). We bought her the Micra as apart from being reliable they were cheap to insure as opposed to a Fiesta or Corsa of similar age/value (which she has to pay for). Insurance will be the killer on many cars.

I agree about the insurance. Who do you have the car insured with?

£900 looks a lot cheaper than many of the quotes we've seen.

Has anyone put their kids through the Passplus scheme and was it worth it and does it do much for the insurance costs?

I agree about the insurance. Who do you have the car insured with?

£900 looks a lot cheaper than many of the quotes we've seen.

Has anyone put their kids through the Passplus scheme and was it worth it and does it do much for the insurance costs?

it generally knocks about 30% off the cost of insurance, though some insurance companies don't do discounts for it, although their rates tend to be competetive..... we charge £160 for the pass plus course, and our local council subsides 100% of the cost if they go do an hour of road safety stuff at the firestation... they tend to save, on average, between about £200-£700 off their insurance, depending on what they want to drive....

again, the important part of this is NOT the reduction of cost in the insurance, its reduced because the insurance companies have statistical data stating that people who do the pass pus course are about 30% less likley to crsh in their first year (they don't give the discounts just for fun) so its worth doing for the safety aspect, if nothing else.....