SLK makes the top ten......

[Garrycox]

Just saw this on another web site..

Top 10 highest-accident rate cars

Alfa Romeo 147
BMW 330i
Mazda MX-5
Seat Leon
Alfa Romeo 156
Audi A6
Mercedes SLK
Audi A4
Porsche Boxster
Audi A3

 

[hawk20]

Just saw this on another web site..

Top 10 highest-accident rate cars

Alfa Romeo 147
BMW 330i
Mazda MX-5
Seat Leon
Alfa Romeo 156
Audi A6
Mercedes SLK
Audi A4
Porsche Boxster
Audi A3

What's the link, please? As you'd expect many people who want to drive fast buy sporty cars or cars with a cultivated sporty image. Driving fast leaves a smaller margin for error when things go wrong and therefore more accidents.

 

[Balal]

The above said article can be found at

http://cars.uk.msn.com/news/car_news_article.aspx?cp-documentid=746281

 

[littlebrooklyn]

That's an interesting article. My son has just bought a SEAT Leon which I see is also in the top 10. He traded in a Peugeot 106 which is in the bottom 10

 

[Bolide]

I would have expected the results to reflect the type of owner rather than the type of car

But if that's the case, why is the MX5 in the top ten and the Citroen Saxo and Peugeot 205 in the bottom 10? And shouldn't the X5 come top of the list?

Either the results are awry or some cars truly are more susceptible to accidents than others

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

 

[big x]

I would have expected the results to reflect the type of owner rather than the type of car

But if that's the case, why is the MX5 in the top ten and the Citroen Saxo and Peugeot 205 in the bottom 10? And shouldn't the X5 come top of the list?

Either the results are awry or some cars truly are more susceptible to accidents than others

Nick Froome
www.w124.co.uk

The 10 best are all small cheap hatchbacks,my guess is small knocks are not claimed for on the insurance.
I'm surprised to see the SLK so high up,most will be the old model which is hardly a sports car,has secure handling and
tends to be driven by older people !

adam

 

[gary350]

The 10 best are all small cheap hatchbacks,my guess is small knocks are not claimed for on the insurance.
I'm surprised to see the SLK so high up,most will be the old model which is hardly a sports car,has secure handling and
tends to be driven by older people !

adam

So what you are saying is that the slk should be better placed as older people are better drivers, I will go along with that.

gary

 

[hawk20]

It's no good ignoring the fact that all the top ten are cars sold with a 'sporty' image and are likely to appeal to those who want to drive aggressively and 'closer to the edge'. The less margin for error you leave the more likely you are to crash when things go wrong. Older people aren't 'better' drivers per se but they are safer and have less accidents. In a way that is better, of course. The reason in my view is that the more hours you drive the more incidents you see, the more leaves on the road on a critical corner, more burst tyres, people pulling out of junctions without warning and so on. And sooner or later you either have crashes or learn to drive with a bigger margin for errors -not necessarily your own errors - but other peoples too, and mechanical failure.

Here are a few things that slowed me up a bit:
Driving round bend at speed on M4 when back wheel fell off. Completely out of control. Rolled over 10 times. Ended in field. Car disintegrated.
Driving fast in outside lane. Car in front -Corsa- had front tyre burst. Goes out of control. rolls over, hits everyone in sight. Horrendous crash.
Concertina nose to tail shunt involving loads of cars in foggy conditions on the M1. Car two ahead, hit in the back by truck. Catches fire. People inside melted in the heat.
Ask anyone who drives loads of miles and they will tell you they see loads of crashes. If it doesn't slow you up and make you leave more margin for error you are a fool.

 

[c955]

I remember when I ran a lovely Alfasud 1.3Ti.

I had a prang and when I took it to the Alfa Specialist in NW London, the guy there told me that any Alfa that's involved in accident...you can bet it'll be the Alfa driver's fault

 

[hawk20]

I remember when I ran a lovely Alfasud 1.3Ti.

I had a prang and when I took it to the Alfa Specialist in NW London, the guy there told me that any Alfa that's involved in accident...you can bet it'll be the Alfa driver's fault

Yes . It is the agrressive way they drive and BMW owners even more so. "Get out of my way. I have a sporty high performance car" that's the approach. See it every day.

 

[Ibby]

imo the audi's are on there as they are used more and more nowadays as rep mobiles - hence more on the motorways/roads being thrashed to the end of its life

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

I saw that site too. What amazes me is that cars driven by middle-aged business men (like the Merc, and the Audi A6/A4) are crashed the most and yet cars like the Corsa, Nova and Fiesta (the prefered car of your average 18 year old) are crashed the least.

I find this VERY hard to believe when you only need to get near a large car park in Essex on a Friday night to see gangs of youths doing donuts in car parks in the "least crashed" cars. I guess they are just more likely to run off and abandon the car and not make a claim.

I expect the truth of the matter is a lot of the exec cars are company cars where the driver will make a claim for the smallest thing, where as privately owned car drivers tend to be more worried about their no-claims bonus.

 

[littlebrooklyn]

I think it's important to not overgeneralise and assume that just because someone is male and young then they are not responsible drivers. My son and most of his friends have been driving since the age of 17. My son's first car was a Nova and he drove it very sensibly. He's since had a Peugeot 205GTi, a l06GTi and now a SEAT Leon Cupra. In 11yrs of driving he's not yet had an accident

 

[c955]

How important is it to note that these stats are accident rates that are being discussed?

i.e. 25 out of 100 cars in accident = 25%

25 out of 50 = 50%

If you own the only Merc 2.5L Flat 8 Cyl and have an accident, does that mean 100% of Merc 2.5L Flat 8 Cyl cars have had an accident? I guess so

 

[hawk20]

I think it's important to not overgeneralise and assume that just because someone is male and young then they are not responsible drivers. My son and most of his friends have been driving since the age of 17. My son's first car was a Nova and he drove it very sensibly. He's since had a Peugeot 205GTi, a l06GTi and now a SEAT Leon Cupra. In 11yrs of driving he's not yet had an accident

Actually Lilb, and unusually, on this subject it is important to generalise and not look at individual cases. We are talking the AVERAGE number of accidents per MX5 or SLK or whatever. Not what one person does.

But to be particular for a second, if I were an underwriter, I would look at the cars your son has bought and say he appears to want GT type cars and performance and presumably buys it to use it. (Rather like his parents who I think chose 2.5 litres and V6 in a Golf ... )I would charge him more for insurance than someone buying a Corsa 1.0 litre. And if it was your money doing the insuring I bet you would too. So happens in his case- so far at least and long may it continue- he's been accident free. But I'll bet if you took the average of all Peugeot GTi's you'd find more accidents per mile than , say, Fiestas.

 

[hawk20]

How important is it to note that these stats are accident rates that are being discussed?

i.e. 25 out of 100 cars in accident = 25%

25 out of 50 = 50%

If you own the only Merc 2.5L Flat 8 Cyl and have an accident, does that mean 100% of Merc 2.5L Flat 8 Cyl cars have had an accident? I guess so

Yes. Exactly right. And that is the right way to do it.

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

Sadly LittleBrooklyn, the insurance companies do generalise - which is why GTi's cost considerably more to insure than GL's no matter how good the individual driver. The individual driver is then rated by his no claims discount.

You must admit most young drivers tend to buy Corsa's, Nova's, Fiesta's and the like. Mainly because of the obscene amounts of money insurance companies charge anyone under 30 on anything else.

 

[jon_harley]

The 10 best are all small cheap hatchbacks,my guess is small knocks are not claimed for on the insurance.

Yes, that article is actually reporting claim rates not, strictly speaking, accident rates. Looks like Audi owners are among the likeliest to claim against their insurance.

 

[hawk20]

Yes, that article is actually reporting claim rates not, strictly speaking, accident rates. Looks like Audi owners are among the likeliest to claim against their insurance.

No.No. Be careful. The claim rate would be , for example, that 90% of Audi owners in an accident claimed for it. Whereas, say, 95% of Ford owners claimed. That doesn't tell you how many accidents they had. The table referred to here is about 'number of accidents for which a claim is made' per thousand Audi 6's, per Seat Leon and so on. (i.e. they correctly allow for the fact that if there are twice as many Seat Leons as SLK's you would expect twice the number of accidents from them).

NOW provided roughly the same proportion of drivers involved in accidents, make claims, then you are looking at which cars are most involved in accidents. By the way we have no reason to believe the claiming rate differs much from one make of car to another. And no means of proving it. So like it or not this is the best data we are likely to get on relative accident rates.

But who is surprised? Sports cars have always paid more based on higher accident rates. And 'sporty' cars too. Young males have far more accidents than females of any age and far more than older males. That we know. Now think what cars young males like to buy and --guess what-- those cars will figure high in any list of cars involved in many acidents. Now look at the top ten list again. And is anyone really surprised?

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

Hawk20, not an actuary are you by any chance (not sure if I spelt that right) ?