Do new Saabs have rollover protection like the classic Saabs?

That used to be a big advertising point, and one of the reasons I bought Saabs. But now they never seem to mention anything like a roll cage or reinforced pillars. My son had his 75 Wagonback go airborne after being driven off the road and the car landed on the driver's side pillar, and bounced back upright. He only got a little bruise, wasn't wearing his seatbelt. The glass didn't even break. I don't think this woman would have suffered neck and back injuries in a classic Saab:

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Reply to
saabyurk
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"saabyurk" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Yes they have. It's just so common today that every (European) car has it. Saab (and Volvo) are however still the only manufactures to make Elk-tests, where the put 1000 pounds of thick metalwire in a bundle, 5 feet over the ground, and then run a car with 50 mph into it (windscreen first).

Reply to
Henrik B.

I don't think that's the "elk test". That one is about being able to avoid elks rather than being able to survive hitting them.The car has to be able to swerve round an imaginary elk at very short notice. It's the test that famously made the Mercedes A class fall over.

I think the test with the bundles of electrical cables is a much more recent development.

Cheers,

Colin.

Reply to
Colin Stamp

Saab has the "Moose Test" as quoted here, it does test for hitting them: "Another, more familiar Saab test is the moose crash test. In Sweden, an average of more than ten collisions between cars and moose occur every day. Since the early 1990s, Saab has therefore been running a crash test in its ordinary range of tests in which the car travelling at 70 km/h collides with a 380 kg moose dummy. Saab began developing the moose crash test together with the Swedish Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) back in 1981 and is now evolving, still with the VTI, a new version of the 'moose'."

See:

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Reply to
saabyurk

Look at this report:

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page 19 you'll se a nice picture of the "cable moose" while page 21 shows the "moose" currently in use, made of rubber discs.

Reply to
th

Thanks much! Very interesting, but now I have to learn to read Swedish.

Reply to
saabyurk

Not enough information to tell if the roof collapsed. The woman was 61 years old. I know from personal experience how the body becomes more fragile with age. I would like to think Saab has not lost its focus on safety. However, all of the crash ratings are with models with all of the available airbags - and with only a single hit. Air bags do not re-deploy in a rollover accident with multiple hits as in this case. Once they are fired, they deflate quickly, to become totally useless for the next hits, like you would find in a rollover.

Volvo used rollover protection in an advertisement after an accident where a Volvo rolled down a cliff and the passenger frame was intact, effectively protecting the occupants. This was the 240 series Volvo, not the newer models which earned their safety ratings with airbags. Saab used to show a picture of a Classic 900 with a big tree on top. The tires were flattened from the weight, but the body was intact. My neighbor was broad sided while in their 240. The other car ran a stop sign and hit the 240 in the side hard enough to roll it over on its roof and back on its wheels. All four doors were opened by the occupants of the Volvo - without the use of tools.

Volvo used to be built str> That used to be a big advertising point, and one of the reasons I

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Reply to
ma_twain

Yes it does. Probably the most important question is, 'was the occupant wearing a seatbelt?' If not, what do you expect? If so, then she may well have been more extensively injured in a wide range of cars and maybe less so in some. At least she survived. Cheers

Reply to
hippo

"Colin Stamp" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

No. The Elk-test (Moose-test) IS the one done by Saab! The other one is in direct translation from danish: A double avoidance manouvre.

It's motoring journalists that called the MB-disaster an "Elk-test".

Reply to
Henrik B.

You could be right - I'm no expert. If that's the case though, they've certainly done a good job of convincing everyone else. All the relevant Google hits for "elk test" refer to the emergency lane-change type thing. Hell, even Wikipedia agrees!

Cheers,

Colin.

Reply to
Colin Stamp

Sounds like someone should go in and edit the wikipedia page accordingly. If I get some time I'll take care of it.

Dave

Reply to
Dave Hinz

We'll soon change that!

Reply to
MH

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