If this is not your first consideration, something is wrong with you

Armature, fuel economy and comfort is good and beautiful, even value preservation is a major consideration, but precisely what will determine with your family members surviving an accident remains vague.

No more

Yoav Falls

13/03/2022

Sunday, 13 March 2022, 08:40 Updated: 09:36

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Two cars, same test, but some changed (Photo: euro NCAP)

Safety is probably the most important criterion that exists when choosing a new vehicle.

You do not always know it, we do not tend to think about it, but he is the one who will determine if and how we will survive a serious accident, the one who will determine how our loved ones who travel with us will survive an accident.

And if you're in the segment of 'It Won't Happen to Me', then it's enough to hear on the news about serious road accidents, and understand that even those who had an accident did not really plan to go out in the morning and get into an accident.

safety.

And because the subject is very broad, frequently changing and contains a lot of terms and definitions, we will review in this article and follow it the more important foundations in understanding the safety components of the car.

Mainly to give you the ability to make informed decisions about your next vehicle.

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How safe is your car: excellence and criticism

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Gone are the days when car safety was determined by tin thickness.

This is what the Chevrolet Bell Air 59 looks like in a crash test in front of a modern car (Photo: IIHS)

Letters and Numbers

In the showroom you will be impressed mainly by all the safety systems that are in your car, and here are a few concepts and terms that you need to be familiar with.

If you do not really remember what adaptive cruise control is and what active steering wheel repair is - I recommend you read this article.

He will make some order in terms.

But safety systems are not everything.

It should be seen that they work efficiently, and make sure the vehicle design is proper.

The older readers still remember the period when car safety was defined by the 'understanding' public as a function of tin thickness.

If it has a thick tin (Volvo, American) then the vehicle is safe, and if it has a thin tin then it is made of paper, and it is not safe.

And the truth is that it is far from reality.

In reality we want the vehicle to protect the most important thing - the passengers.

A vehicle that is built as strong as possible, will not absorb the energy in the accident, and will pass it on to passengers.

We want a vehicle that crashes during an accident, keeps the cabin intact, and thus transfers as little of the impact energy to the occupants of the vehicle.

The results of crash tests of vehicles not tested in Europe can be found on American websites (Photo: IIHS)

This is exactly what is being tested in well-known organizations such as the European EuroNCAP or the American NHTSA and the IIHS.

The differences between the various bodies relate to the test methods they apply and the different tests.

For example, in those Americans, the car's resistance to overturning is also tested, that is, the level of risk of losing control and overturning of the car during an emergency maneuver or accident.

Also in this section there is a difference between the two where the NHTSA conducts calculations based on wheelbase, vehicle width and height to assess the degree of risk and then conducts a test that examines what the actual risk of such a rollover is, while the IIHS converts cars on the roof or applies pressure to the roof to Check the amount of load it can carry.

"Model page" in NHTSA and details of the grades in the various sections (Photo: NHTSA)

These institutes receive or purchase new vehicles and smash them in a variety of scenarios, equip them with sensitive sensors that measure the force of the blow, document and photograph the crash from any direction, examine the severity of injuries to test vehicles installed in the vehicle, test vehicle safety systems installed and installed. Nothing brings out a final grade.

The score usually consists of a star rating from 0 stars (lowest) to 5 stars (highest).

Within each test you will also be impressed by internal components that the institute has rated, whether it is with respect to passenger protection, pedestrians and more.

Today in order for a vehicle to get the maximum score it must also include a set of safety systems that are the minimum necessary in order to be included in a particular category.

In American institutes the score is sometimes given in letters denoting the ranking or in definitions such as "transcendent", "advanced" or "basic".

The safety rating of a car changes over the years in light of raising the minimum threshold, as in the case of Renault Zoe (Photo: euro NCAP)

Here we come to a critical point for understanding.

With technological development, both in passenger protection, both in materials and in advanced safety systems, the safety level of a vehicle that received 5 safety stars in 2012 is very far from the safety level of a vehicle that received the exact same score in 2022.

In fact there is a situation that the same vehicle from 2012 would have received a failed score today.

This means that when choosing a used car it is very important to learn about the safety scores it received at the time, but this is only relevant in the face of alternatives from that period.

It would be a grave mistake to think that a vehicle that received a maximum safety rating ten years ago enjoys the same level of safety of a new vehicle that receives the same safety rating.

It is important to understand that the testing institutes, both European and American, are constantly updating the criteria.

Another important institute is the Chinese Safety Institute.

China is a large and important global vehicle manufacturer, and as such it also owns the Chinese safety institute C-Ncap, which ostensibly is aided by test models similar to those of EuroNCAP.

If you go to the link (and do an English translation) you will be impressed by the selection of crash tests that the institute performs.

Despite that, I would feel more comfortable making a decision by the European or American Institute.

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Oh Dressed: Renault Zoe with a score of 0 in the crash tests.

And who got a lone star?

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Advanced safety design also allows small cars like the Smart to offer a higher level of safety than cars larger than it (Photo: euro NCAP)

Another statistic that is important to know and contain is who the specific version tested in that crash test is.

Vehicles are sold in different markets in versions that are not always identical to each other, and differ from each other in the level of equipment and more, depending on the specific configuration for the same market.

Usually the chassis and chassis will be the same, but the safety specifications may vary from market to market.

So even when you are reading and learning about the safety rating of a particular vehicle, put a small asterisk next to it, because it is not certain that it is exactly the same level of finish you will get in the country.

Sometimes it will be lower, and sometimes higher.

Another important thing to know is that a vehicle that has received a safety score on the test, it is possible that one or two more safety systems will move it to a higher rating.

It will now be correct to understand which systems were missing in the same test performed, and whether the vehicle supplied to us in Israel is already equipped with the same systems or not.

I would like to say that after learning about the results of the vehicle in a crash test, it is worth digging a little further and understanding what it was missing in order to get a higher score, and comparing it to the level of equipment available to us in the local market.

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The safest there is: the 2021 team

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So to sum up so far, the vehicles are being tested in independent and independent testing institutes.

It is important for us as consumers to look for information about the level of safety of the vehicle in which we are interested, compare it to other vehicles among which we are undecided, and then add to the considerations the other considerations that exist when choosing a vehicle such as price, reliability and more.

In the next chapter we will talk about the safety score of the Ministry of Transport, the same score that appears at the bottom of every advertisement and every ad of the importers relating to a specific vehicle.

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