Yahoo Autos Rolling SUVs Down A Cliff Reveals How Safe Modern Cars Are
Morbid curiosity drives many folks to YouTube car crash videos, be they professionally and scientifically staged or dashcam footage from far away countries, but this video of two brand-new crossovers getting rolled down a rocky mountain really caught my attention. This video is hardly scientific, but I was still shocked by how well both the 2024 Peugeot 3008 and 2024 Volkswagen Tiguan held up after getting cow-tipped down a mountainside.
Most countries have different automotive safety regulations, and this video doesn’t disclose the region these crashes were staged. If you own an American-market Volkswagen Tiguan, a different model than this Euro Tiguan, it would fare entirely differently were it to get rolled off a cliff using a forklift. Regardless of what country this video was filmed in, both crossovers withstood the cruel force of gravity quite admirably, with the Peugeot’s doors opening without any additional force after it tumbled down the rocky mountainside (though the Volkswagen required more effort to open the doors).
It’s difficult to know exactly how far the vehicles fell, but the Peugeot completed six full rotations while the Tiguan completed seven and a half rotations as they rolled down the mountain. It’s astounding how well both vehicles retained their shape after such a severe series of rollovers, which is important for more than just aesthetic reasons. If a vehicle’s greenhouse and overall shape are well-maintained after a crash, the occupants will have plenty of survival space. Obviously, when a vehicle’s structure collapses during a rollover, occupants have lower chances of making it out of the crash without serious injuries.
When SUVs and crossovers exploded in popularity among families in the late 1990s and early 2000s, safety concerns grew around rollover accidents since lifted vehicles have higher centers of gravity. Roof strength tests were implemented by the IIHS in the United States in 2009, but the Institute actually stopped testing for roof strength in 2022 because virtually all new vehicles that were tested met or exceeded requirements. Roof strength has come a long way in a short time, and though this video is from outside the United States, it shows that in real life. That said, we still hope you keep things rubber side down.
