NYAudiLover16

update...........'01 AR - 9,000 miles, wife has had two mysterious "flats"; last week she is in stop & go traffic, going between 10-15mph...BOOM! Rear Ends the guy in front of her, NOT A SCRATCH to HIS car, he is not hurt. My wife and son are ok, airbags do NOT deploy....Allroad looks totalled, hood, front end severly mangled, driver side door won't open...body shop..$11,200 in damage.....does this seem odd to anyone?

alibaba

I think the damage is intentional and the energy has been used to crumble the car like that. That's why the other driver and car as well as the allroad occupants did not get hurt.

I agree that it sounds wrong though. One would expect to have just bumper damage at that speed. What was the other car?

I think the better technology has been used to protect the occupants in both of the cars.

Sorry to hear this happen to you

Ollie

Could be just that modern cars are built so that the front end will "collapse" to make the passenger compartment stay intact and minimize impact on the passengers. My experience was the opposite with rear end impact - my allroad was rear ended by an old Honda going 30-35 mph. Honda's front left quarter was totaled, radiator busted, hood bent etc. Allroad's bumper was damaged, no visible damage otherwise - that was all. Sitting in a 4200 pound vehicle being hit by a much lighter car made a big difference in the impact. I wasn't hurt a bit. On closer inspection there was slight damage to unibody. $2000 fix, now everything is ok.

April

not have the bags deploy. It is only meant to work in the worst case situations. Sensors are much better at measuring this force now, than the early versions. If the airbag goes off, you could have bruising, cuts, temporary deafness and broken bones in the face, hands or arms ( if too close or crossed ). You only want it to activate as a final resort.

medster

Hmmm...that is curious. I had a similar mishap a couple of weeks ago - saw someone I knew going the other direction, took my eyes off the road for one second to wave, the next thing I know there is a car waiting to turn left stopped in front of me... jam on the brakes, skid 10 or 15 ft., and hit the car in front of me at maybe 10 to 15 mph. Stupid f**king move! Luckily no one was hurt, and it was only a 91 ford Escort that I hit. But, in my case the allroad did very well - cosmetic damage only to the front bumper, one plastic flange around the radiator is also broken. Insurance estimate was $1500 or so - it's going in a week from Monday. What kind of car did your wife hit anyway, out of curiosity?