How safe is an old Volvo? (continued)

S40s and V40s (1998-2003) were slotted to be our entry-level small cars. Actually this car was never intended for our market, but our manufacturing plant – NedCar – in the Netherlands had excess capacity from another manufacturer that was much less successful then we were with the S40 and V40, so we brought them to America and Canada.

More than 100 crash tests were used to create an extremely strong safety structure. The engine and transmission were mounted transversely (East/West) for added front impact safety. The doors are designed to help withstand offset impacts up to about 40 mph and front wheel intrusion is restricted by front impact members that sweep out towards the door sills. With the SIPS body structure and SIPS airbag, this was our smallest and safest car in 1998. This design came from our Environmental Concept Car (ECC) in 1992 and would set future design language for our brand.

S40s and V50s (2004 – present) went even further with small car safety. We wanted to help provide even more preventative and protective safety measures. Volvo developed IDIS – Intelligent Driver Information System – that was introduced as a world-first in the new Volvo S40 in 2003.

IDIS is a thinking system. It continuously monitors certain functions in the car, such as steering wheel movement, the action of the accelerator pedal, the use of the turn signal indicator and the degree of braking. This information is processed and at a given level of activity, information that is not crucial to safety – such as an incoming phone call or an SMS text message – is delayed until the situation is calmer. Any activity that the system interprets as overtaking, turning, or braking will put IDIS into alert mode.

In Europe, where cell service is GSM based, this kind of task management structure is possible. Over there, cell phones are integrated into vehicle electric architecture, but not here. Say you’re making a left turn and a phone call comes in. Of course we pick up the phone and completely zone out to what is happening around us. So IDIS steps in to delay the call until the turn is completed. The system in our market would delay sending the driver messages (like “washer fluid low,” etc.). Cool, but not as good as the Euro version.

The new S40/V50 was designed around Volvo Intelligent Vehicle Architecture (VIVA). I think the most interesting point was a computer simulation of a 35 mph frontal impact to see how much space was left over in the engine bay. That remaining space was given to our engine guys to fit our 5-cylinder engine into that left over space. Meaning at 35 mph the engine is less likely to impact the firewall. Also, the body’s front structure is designed to shift forces from side to side, much like road bridges transfer forces. (An engineer showed me with pen and paper, but I lost him when he started adding numbers. He saw my eyes glassing over and just said it handles forces like a bridge. Ok, that’s fine. I can visualize that scenario.)

Then we have today’s Volvo’s. But that’s even more about preventative and protective safety than we could have ever dreamed possible back when 240s were a gleam in our engineer’s eyes. One time while doing something in Sweden (I forget what) around 1992, I found a 5-inch square metal tube on an engineer’s table. “What’s this,” I asked. “Something that didn’t work,” he offered. It was filled with very dense foam and crush tested and looked like something mounted to a bumper. Don’t you just love walking around asking questions!

I think my friend got more than he bargained for when he asked, “How safe is an old Volvo?” I didn’t offer this attribute; please take it with a good dose of British humor: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-408674/Volvo-estate-named-best-passion-wagon.html.

Safe driving to you all,

Dan

Tags: ECC, IDIS, s40, safety, v40, v50, viva