Nobody I know drives a convertible. That's because unless you are young and pretty a droptop makes you look like a tool on exhibit. Unfortunately, the young and pretty usually can't afford a cabrio– unless they are rich socialites, trustafarians or enjoy the company of impotent older gentlemen. ADAC (that's the ubiquitous German driver's club) found another reason to dismiss convertibles: you better be pretty short if you want to survive a roll-over crash. Spiegel Online reports that of three Euro-minis tested by ADAC, only the MINI was safe enough for a roll in the hay (or anywhere else you choose to disregard the laws of physics). The oldish Citroen Pluriel suffered from a severely bent A-pillar. The new Peugeot 207 CC was equally flimsy, but offered longer and stronger roll-over bars. Even the MINI's dummies looked unhappy (don't they always?); their seat belts didn't hold them down as well as they should. ADAC says every convertible should have ESP, since the electronic nanny strongly reduces the (already low) probability of a rollover. (German-language video of test results at link.)
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I know a guy that his wife rolled their Miata and walked away from it. I wanted to know not only how did she roll it, but how did she walk away from it? He told me that he didn’t know.
The skill (or lack thereof) to roll a Miata has to be pretty high. I don’t think I’d want to know what it took to make it roll.
pretty easy to roll any car – hit a curb going sideways at speed, sliding into a ditch, etc. On an uninterupted flat surface a car will likely not roll though.
#1: That video is awesome, I want the job to launch those cars into that spinning ball of doom.
#2: I don’t think most low end coupes (these are low -end convertibles in the video) would survive that test either, roof or no. At least the cabriolets have reinforcements and whatnot, your standard run of the mill Hyundai does not.
I could be talking out of my ass there, but one of the first things I thought of sitting in a friend’s Accent was how pathetic those pillars looked.
Screw what other people think. I’m not so young anymore (and I’ve never been pretty), but I like convertibles and drive them because there is no substitute for the wind in your hair, the noise and feedback they give, and the feeling they create of real interaction with the world outside of your car. As for rollover safety, I’ll put on my seatbelt and take my chances. A new Miata is probably safer in all conditions than most cars from as recently as the mid-1980s, yet the corpses of people who own cars that old are not stacked like cordwood along every major highway. While safety is good, the current obsession with eliminating any possible danger in any activity is becoming truly ridiculous.
Good point, it’s easy to notice how unsafe it is to roll over in a convertible, but that doesn’t mean it’s much safer in a coupe, sedan, pickup, CUV, or SUV, unless it’s a Volvo.
I have a Miata – not a new one (which has nominal rollover protection), but a used one that we young, financially unestablished, and pretty people (maybe before my 5 o’clock shadow sets in) can afford. Every once in a while I read about a Miata rolling over down a ravine, but those rolls are so random. You have pretty good odds of not landing flat on your head, and surviving.
An aftermarket roll bar might cost a grand (a lot, to us) to purchase and install, but there’s a lot of concern that they might be unsafe in rear-enders, which are a lot more common. You could theoretically slide up your seat and hit the bar with the back of your head, so even with padding it might be safer to not have one at all. In any case, the only type of crash pre’-06 Miata owners really fear are side impacts. The car has a good record of either coping with or avoiding the other kinds.
VW Cabrio – rollbar looks goofy but I’ll accept it keeping my head from getting cracked.
It must be pointed out that a lot of rollovers occur when a car leaves the road onto a sloped median and the driver immediately tries to drive back on the road when the right thing to do is point the car downhill and gently lose as much speed as possible before trying to drive back onto the road.
Another thing worth noting is that most deaths “due to rollover” aren’t people being squashed due to lack of rollbar…they’re people being ejected centrifugally as the car spins violently. That speaks more to SUVs and trucks, but felt it was worth mentioning.
More than rolling over, I fear SUVs or trucks running over my spider from behind in stop/go freeway traffic. More than once I have veered to the shoulder when I realized a vehicle behind me was not going to stop in time. That’s when I think about adding a four point bar – so if they pop up on my trunk, there is something to help keep their vehicle from mashing my passenger compartment.
No worse than many late model SUVs.
Ash78, I’ve been in a rollover where exactly that happened… older Saab 9000 turbo, relatively low speed (40mph), very sharp corner, inexperienced driver did as you describe and we rolled 1.5 times. Fortunately neither of us were hurt.
Im not really worried about roll-overs, but i am worried about animals. Hitting a moose with one of these would not be very nice. The nose of the car basically hits the legs and then you have up to 800kg of meat flying thru the windshield at high speed. And possibly continuing out the back.. Moose and other big animals might not be a huge problem in many parts of the world, but here in Finland they are.
Im not surprised by the results though.
I have an exuberant friend who in her youth rolled VW Real Beetles on several occasions. She had no lasting injuries. Also knew someone who rolled a Deux Chevaux around the Arch de Triomphe without signficant injury.
These examples seem remarkable to me because neither vehicle was made to safety standards and neither impresses as particularly strongly made. On the other hand, the overall shape was designed to be sturdy relative to weight, esp. the VW, I think. Whereas these late model cars with the strongly raked windshields are just asking for it.
An old friend once flipped a TR3 on a tight track really meant for gokarts. It did a complete barrel roll and landed on its wheels without touching in between! Ever since that time, his racing helmet sported a furniture caster on the top.
25 years ago, my sister rolled her MG Midget, the windshield frame was smashed flush with hood, she was unscathed.
Her secret? I am pretty sure she was drunk, made her all limber, and flopped sideways at the right time.
It seems that driving drunk did not used to be such a big deal as it is today.
The miata top can actually support the weight of the vehicle (but I don’t know how much more it can take due to speed of impact). Also, it is possible to roll the car without hitting the top.
ADAC did the same test in 2003 with different cars: Miata (first-generation), Beetle, Opel Astra. The Miata fared miserably. The Beetle had pop-up roll-over bars and thus tested somewhat better. The Astra was safest because it had a large, hard roll-over bar similar to that of the Golf.
Don’t get me wrong, guys; I don’t believe that safety is the most important thing in life (I drive a Vespa on a daily basis, btw.) People should, however, know how dangerous their toys are and drive accordingly.
I read this post with a tinge of sadness – my wife’s MX5 (Miata) is sold and will be collected in a few days and I guess this is the last time we’ll have a convertible.
Having said that we’re selling it because there are too many fools in vans and suvs who conspire to make driving more worry and less joy, so the sadness is tinged with relief…
Before I get slammed by suv drivers – I realise that not all suv drivers are bad drivers but I hope they’ll agree that the mass uptake of suvs has done nothing to improve driving standards.
5’6″ – check
young and beautiful – check
Z4 roadster – check
I’m in the clear.