So, I've been reading around in the memorial forum and I've seen several people passed away whilst driving some Jaguar vehicle. Which leads me to ask the question, does anyone know where we can find the safety reports/crash test ratings of the XJ8's and VPD's etc?

 

No I don't ( just to be helpful :-) ) but I do know that when the XJ8 came out it was declared as one of the safest cars on the road when looking at fatalities and injuries by UK police.

Safer in fact than a Volvo of the same year.. the reason being that I think I am correct in saying, that US had new safety laws which were to be introduced - Jaguar over engineered the chassis to allow for these new laws.. but then those laws were not implemented. Other manufacturers had not engineered their cars to allow for the new laws, hence the XJ8 was heavier but safer..

Anyone out there is welcome to correct me but that is my take on it.... to be honest I personally trust the XJ much more in an accident than my X-Type although even my X-Type pretty much surrounds the occupants with air bags :-)

 

That is my understanding as well

 

I was going to say the same thing Steve said. I remember reading that, maybe in a post on this forum. But that's only my recollection. I don't have any data to back it up. If someone does, I'd love to see it too.

 

This question crops up from time to time, just be safe in the knowledge they're much safer than many of todays econo boxes, I've seen a few bent ones and All occupants have walked away.

 

See the chart SirJag posted a few years ago that indicates you are 50% less likely to be injured in a 2001 Jaguar XJ8 than in other similar cars:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...82/#post338143

 

The article I think you are referring to is ...


1988-2003 Jaguar X308(R) an under rated luxury saloon. auto scape Autoscape


Probably a very long way around to get there, but I am not very computer savvy.

 

Bollox, I typed in autoscapehttp://www.autoscape.com/?=129

 

Fundamentally, I think the X308 is safe enough. The problem is this : over the last 20 years, cars have gained ABS, stability control, airbags, seat belt pre-tensioners, better structural strength, side impact bars, and so on. How much have deaths on US roads dropped? Not at all. Why? Because the driving abilities of the average driver have not improved. You might say that they have got worse - certainly there are more disctractions, and distracted drivers. If the government really wanted to make the roads safer, there'd be more driver training. No way anyone is touching THAT hot potato....can you imagine the clamour about big government interfering with people's freedoms?

 

Whereas deaths on UK roads have dropped almost in a straight line over the last few decades, despite more and more cars on already crowded roads. (Our drivers are no better and with increasing distractions due to mobile phones etc it can only be a matter of time before deaths go up.)

 

Here's some interesting stats on the subject

ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS DEATH RATE BY COUNTRY

I like living in a grey country.

 

I disagree. British drivers, on average, are much better trained and have better abilities than the ones here in California.

The British driving test is much more rigorous. I have done both the British one and the California one, and I can tell you that the California one is a joke.
Most British drivers have far more training. 10 to 20 hours of professional driving lessons would be common, while here it is common to have much less. Many people just go out with a relative for a bit and then just try to wing it.
British roads are a much more demanding environment, in terms of skills. The average US driver, placed in a British suburb, would be dead within the hour.
Most British drivers drive manual shift cars, most cars in the US are automatic. Driving a manual makes you a better driver.

 

I agree with Mark, having driven in both places. British drivers have enough common sense to stay out of the high speed lane unless passing. Here in the US it not uncommon to find some moron riding along in the outside lane 15 miles below traffic speed. Last weekend on I95 this ******* was going 50, traffic was doing 75, meanwhile he has his iPhone out at eye level Twittering. You would get killed in the UK or Germany.

My good fortune in learning to drive on the wrong side was having lived in Japan for five years: much easier to drive when you can read the signs! Still, driving in London sucks as badly as in Washington or Bay Area.

 

Strangely enough, I read a post elsewhere pointing out that
younger drivers are likely to use a "open loop style of driving",
and referred to them as "playstation drivers".

Now, I don't know where he got the number, but the number
the writer put out was that such drivers can handle a maximum
stimulus rate of 2HZ. Meaning they can handle a maximum of
2 events requiring attention per second.

Some readers will recognise the significance of the term open
loop versus closed loop. It implies that the driver issues a
command and expects it to happen without paying attention
to feedback.

In the past I have thought of them as "point and shoot"
drivers. People who have grown up with digital devices
that respond to stabbing fingers at them.

Case in point, some nitwit reported on a forum that he tried
turning of his electronic nanny as a test of his imagined high
performance in city driving skills. He spun his car on a left
hand turn at a traffic light at a self reported 15mph!

BTW, he started his turn from a dead stop.

This strongly suggests that he is a point and shoot driver
who treats the left and right pedals as on and off switches.

Floor it and let the computer meter out what is allowable
under the circumstances, and if necessary jam on the brake
pedal and the computer will again do the thinking.

The only thing missing for him is left and right paddles to
replace the steering wheel.

 

I would have to second that, here in Wisconsin it's not uncommon at all for someone to be in the passing lane puttering along at 45-50MPH when the speed [-]suggestion[/-] limit is 70 and everyone else is doing 75-80

 

It is not just the driving standards that are going backwards, pedestrians seem to have a deathwish.


They walk around with ear buds in texting, or playing a game on their smart phone, totally oblivious to their surroundings.


This is the reason all the new cars all look alike, soft, spongy front ends, air bags to lift the bonnet/hood clear of the engine block, all so that we don't kill the a$$hole who steps infront of a two ton car because he/she is distracted texting, or updating their faceache profile.


Now, if these dingbats cannot concentrate enough to walk down the road safely, what are they going to be like behind a steering wheel?

 

Horrors!

I stand corrected about drivers. Much to my disappointment.

Even so, British drivers are quite often pretty poor and getting worse due to hands-free (when they don't just break the law and use non-hands-free) iPhones, tablets, etc. And pedestrians are the same - paying less attention to their own safety due to texting etc.