Concerning crash safety, I believe that all three brands perform comparably in either a front end or rear end collision. Side collisions are another issue though. There was a television special aired awhile back demonstrating side collision testing at the Volvo factory using a Volvo SUV. They tried their best to get the vehicle to flip over by employing hard cornering. No matter how hard they turned the steering wheel, the Volvo refused to flip over.

They then used a battering ram to hit the Volvo in the side with an explosive impact. As a result, the Volvo rolled several times; the crash test dummies experienced little to no "injuries". Amazing.

Concerning Saabs, a friend of mine experienced a side collision in his Saab. A woman in a rather large Cadillac ran a red light going approximately 50 - 60 MPH and hit his Saab in the right passenger door. She hit him so hard his Saab rolled two - three times (it happened so fast, he doesn't remember how many times his car rolled over).

He wasn't wearing a seat belt so was forced to reach out with his hands to brace himself against the car's roof. The impact area on the right front passenger door showed little damage; amazingly, the interior of the right passenger door showed virtually NO damage. Also, he experienced only minor scrapes and bruises.

To me, a side collision is one of the most violent and life threatening accidents that can occur. I'm always encouraging people to look left, look right and then look left again BEFORE entering ANY intersection, green light or not. But, if the unthinkable happens and you get hit in the side by a red light runner (let's face it, some of these morons are traveling twice the speed limit), which of these three cars do you think gives you the best protection and why?

How about picking out one representative of each brand for comparison? A new S550 is a more likely candidate to effectively protect its occupants in a side collision than a 2003 Saab 9-3.

What vintage? 1980s, I would say SAAB would be out of the picture.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

How did the left front passenger door look?

I got T boned at the intersection of 24th street and Camelback Road by a kid driving his daddy's brand new 69 Caddy convertible. Driver's side, he was going about 50 thru a red light and didn't brake. Hit me in a 67 Impala coup. Somehow or other I hadn't had a beer that weekend night. I broke a left side rib, but that's it. Didn't go to the doc till the next day. Got thrown to the passenger footwell. My car was pushed into a Dodge Dart driven by a pregnant woman who went into labor on scene. The perp broke both knees and his nose. A football star at Arcadia High School. Or should I say FORMER football star.

Anyhow so my vote is for old Chebbies.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Perhaps, but my friend survived a severe side impact in his Saab. They say they are engineered similar to an aircraft. On the interior at the front right passenger door where the Caddy hit, you couldn't tell that it had been hit!!

A close friend of mine was hit in the side of his 70s series Chevrolet Impala by a six to eight ton dump truck. He credits the Chevrolet with saving his life.

Twice in the last year, people I've worked with have had high speed side impacts on the way home from work. The first was in a Chevy Cobalt (I think that's what it was), and the second was in a Chevy/Geo Tracker. Both left via helicopter after suffering serious injuries. The first one was back at work after about three months. The second one was five months ago and I haven't seen that person back. I did some searching and found a report of a similar accident involving a Honda CBR600 or 1000, and the motorcyclist seems to have fared no worse than my co-workers. This is either a stunning win for motorcycle PPE or a black eye for newer GM products. Maybe both.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

He certainly can't credit the dump truck...

Outside the confines of an experiment in a controlled environment, there's far too many variables in any collision to make any conclusions here about the results of every time any two vehicles collide.

When a mid to large sized SUV with a 4-star safety rating, broadsides a small car with a 5-star safety rating in an intersection, what good are the safety ratings in that case?

The fact of the matter is that no two collisions are the same, and many times the results get down to simple physics. I'll take my chances in the bigger hammer every time.

0:53

Top Gear Series 18 - Saab Tribute - YouTube

Saab and Volvo were always top notch when it came to safety, at least stereotypically.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

I wouldn't go with the bigger hammer every time (for example, the "bigger hammer" is often more prone to roll over since the bigger hammers are typically SUVs) but I agree on having too many variables. I have seen wrecks where something flies through the drivers window and hit someone in the head, whereas 2 months ago someone made their car into a boomerang outside my house and ran from the cops.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Ouch, my best wishes to them!

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

I was hit sideways on my side ( driver ) by a Jeep Cherokie dooing 45mph , I was in a 87 merc 300D 116 body , i was just bruzed thx to that car .