Commodores are good!!!

[ImpulR33R]

Before today I wasnt a big fan of commodores, but after today, I will never bag another vt to current commodore.

My friend owns and drives a VX series 2 executive. Travelling down a large hill today up at nambour. Pissing down rain, and water all over the road.

My friend was driving, and all of a sudden I feel the rear end step out. we werent speeding, in fact doing about 75 maybe 80 in a 80 zone. we hit a massive river of water flowing down the hill and the left rear stepped out. Being at the top of the hill, and with about a 45-50 degree incline, we starting sliding down the hill sideways. then it rolled onto the passenger side, then onto the roof.

We were travelling at about 70km/ph down the hill on the roof of this commodore. for appox 15-20 metres when we hit a guard rail for a massive embankment that was flooding with water. we hit it so fast on the drivers side, that it acted like a pivot and flipped the car again, righting itself in a flooded culvit, with trees and shit everywhere. both crawled out about 3 metres up this embankment, and called the police, etc. Police were really good, said the driver didnt breach the road rules and was just an 'accident'

Both Taken to hospital, nothing major wrong, just bump on head, few cuts, sore neck, back, arms and dizzy. (I think I will feel it tomorrow)

Being a car buff, I was interested to see what damage and stuff had happened, (before being taken to hospital, that is)

The engine shut off, whilst we were upside down. no fuel leaks or ruptures, even though rear suspension had collapsed.

The engine was shunted back and down, thus ensuring it did not protrude into the cabin. (engine would have been ****ed)

All windows were 'flung out' during the accident and had 'rolled up' with the tinting. The only cuts I got were on my feet from collecting all my shit over the road. Because we were upside down, everything was on the roof. (excatly like the movie hot shots when he does a barrel roll and all his shit falls on the roof. because the rear window shot out whilst upside down, all our crap was spread all over the road, like cd's etc)

Air bags did not deploy, (thank god), insufficient damage to front and/or rear for them to deploy (i think)

The side panels absorbed most of the impact with the trees and guard rail, with them collapsing in critical places. not one panel was ok, it looked as though they all took the impact together.

dash, steering wheel and seats did not move one inch during the impact. seat belts did pretty good to stop us from moving around too much.

The roof was by far the most interesting thing, the pillars showed no sign of bending or collapse, but had crimpled in certain places in the middle of the roof, between the passenger and driver. Thus ensuring the head space above the driver and passenger was not compromised. (we collected a reflecter in the middle of the road which was embeded into the roof above me !! when we finished.)

In summary, I have always bagged commodores for being crap, etc, but after going through something like that and looking at what crash technology has been installed in modern cars, I have to admit if i was in a smaller car, I doubt we would have walked away. It was quite amazing for a car to stand up to travelling upside down at 70km/h, flip, and land in a gully and the passenger and driver to walk away. And you dont really take any notice of what crash tech is in your car until you have a crash, and walk around it, going "ah that bit collapsed allowing this bit to etc"

As soon as I get the ok from the doc, that I can drive again. He told me to rest as I will be very sore soon. I will post pics as soon as I can get photos of the car. and look more into the certain elements that saved my life today. I cant really go anywhere so I thought I would share this story with you.

[strutto]

Whoa!

Glad to here you and your mate are OK... Glad to hear it wasn't your Skyline...

I think I know the hill your talking about. Pretty nasty when it gets wet.

Pics would be good to see. I wonder how an Excel would of fared...

[chaos]

excel would have snapped

thats the good thing bout holdens (shock gasp im saying something good bout holden) is there a tough car

[Mase]

im glad your ok mate. Makes u really think about things when u get thru something like this!!

[Parag0n]

And the most important thing is that you and your friend are ok

[MJ]

holy shit! glad your ok man, yeah things like this make you appreciate life a bit better

[AutoTrust]

Cool story Matt, Glad you and your friend are ok and glad you weren't in the R33R. Nice avatar...... now I need to change mine!! You deserve it more, having a genuine impul, mine is a genuine kit but not a real R33R. And Holdens have always been good to crash!!

[predator]

very lucky there! I'd be entering lotto or something! There is some good things in modern cars afterall, and safety gets better every model - no matter what the car. One of the reasons i am not a fan of small cars, no matter what the safety features they might have, they never feel as "safe" as a larger car.

[ImpulR33R]

thanks guys

very very very sore today. Painkillers are my best friend at the moment.

[hippy]

its always funny when u guys think about something like this as impulr33r being "lucky" ... i think he was unlucky , sure it could have been worse ... but how often does shit like that happen?? seems pretty unlucky to me ... glad ur ok

[NA_R33]

Without meaning to be rude, im glad you came out of your accident ok.

As safe as Holdens may be structurly, my mum drives holdens flagship car the caprice, and as "adavanced" as its sposed to be the airbags did not deploy, when she rear ended an almost stationary car at 80kph the other car almost not moving (doing approx 5kph). Caused 10g's worth of damage to her car alone and the airbags still didnt deploy, she broke the windshield in 2 spots, one with her wrist and one with head and yes she was wearing a seatbelt, the pyroneumatic (sp*) seatbelt pretensioners didnt work either. It was a dead front on collision.

How safe are holdens??

My mum and dad are currently seeking legal advice about what to do as mum was off work for a while in an accident where the airbags should have deployed and saved her from many of the injuries she recieved.

Just my 2 cents...

[slip]

Good story Matt, very interesting.

Saw your car the other day at Supercheap Currimundi. Nice.

[nismoman18]

I dont think holden is good just from ur experience, sorry to hear about it by the way. The way i see it is the car does its job in the safety department, doesnt make it a special vehicle tho, its still JUST a holden. And i think if u were in an excel u would be ok as well, as it has panels that crunch easy to save u!

[slip]

The issue is not panels that crunch "easy to save u". If the roof collapsed easily then it would have been extremely dangerous, hard to get out of the car, and could have caused serious injuries to the occupants. An Excel does not have anywhere near as much sheetmetal as a commodore to absorb and resist impacts, and is a lightweight old korean (or something) design. It may have some panels that crunch easy, but anyone can put some panels that collapse on a car, thats easy, and doesn't necessarily mean the car will be safe in a crash. Making a car safe in a crash is a complex and expensive excercise.