Wrecked 2012 MZ5

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Saw this at a body shop so stopped to take a few pics. Looks like a good hit in the rear, then a hit to the front. The front seat backs look to have broken and layed down. Major intrusion to the 3rd row seating area. I always wondered how people in the way back of the MZ5 would do in a rear end hit, and now I see it is not a good thing.

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Man alive! What ever hit them must have been TALL! It completely missed the "hitch haul" thing-a-majig. My 07 died in similar circumstances, only mine was hit a lot harder than this one. My rear hatch literally exploded on impact (I believe the 06-08 are fiberglass) and the rear tire on the passenger side was driven up under the gas filler. My seat (driver) back also broke on impact and laid down, not sure what the threshold for failure was meant to be there, but in my case I exceeded it. I ended up with a neck sprain and a small cut on my forehead from the passenger side A- pillar plastic that blew off when the curtain airbag deployed on that side.
 
Saw this at a body shop so stopped to take a few pics. Looks like a good hit in the rear, then a hit to the front. The front seat backs look to have broken and layed down. Major intrusion to the 3rd row seating area. I always wondered how people in the way back of the MZ5 would do in a rear end hit, and now I see it is not a good thing.

Thanks for sharing the pics.

Overall I think the Mz5 took the impact pretty well. The overall chassis seems to be in pretty good shape. It doesn't look like 3rd row passengers sustained too much damage either. Were the seats up or folded down? Sure there is intrusion into the hatch door but there is a little space/cushion there and it may have pushed up against the chairs but not collapsed it much - if any. Looking at this makes me feel a bit "more" confidant in the 3rd row. It's also unusual for something to hit it so high.. It would have been great to see pics of the seats in the rear and how they have moved.


Man alive! What ever hit them must have been TALL! It completely missed the "hitch haul" thing-a-majig. My 07 died in similar circumstances, only mine was hit a lot harder than this one. My rear hatch literally exploded on impact (I believe the 06-08 are fiberglass) and the rear tire on the passenger side was driven up under the gas filler. My seat (driver) back also broke on impact and laid down, not sure what the threshold for failure was meant to be there, but in my case I exceeded it. I ended up with a neck sprain and a small cut on my forehead from the passenger side A- pillar plastic that blew off when the curtain airbag deployed on that side.
Are the +'09 hatches made out of something different??
 
It looks to me like the rear rack thing may have gone under the front of the other car and sent it up into the hatch.
 
I think the impact on the rear rack would have pulled the rear of the M5 down, thus forcing the impact higher on the rear hatch. It looks like the rear seats were folded down, as they are not visible in picture #4. The impact on the windshield is pretty high and large, almost like it hit a deer then got rammed from behind by an SUV.

Passenger compartment doesn't look too bad, considering. Fingers crossed I never find out how well ours fares in a crash.

JMJ
 
It looks like You can sort of see the rear seats folded down and up against the middle row in the 4th picture, but i can't tell how much they would have been affected by the hatch/car crashing into the back of the 5.

To me it looks like something came at the car from the right a bit, and it's wheel smashed in the left side of the rack while the right side of the rack went under the oncoming car- i assume a big SUV or lifted truck...
No idea what happened in the front... something rolled over it. Think it was a deer in the front and an SUV in the back? Great... now i'm more freaked out by big trucks riding too close behind me at night while i'm trying to look out for deer on country roads...
 
No idea what happened in the front... something rolled over it. Think it was a deer in the front and an SUV in the back? Great... now i'm more freaked out by big trucks riding too close behind me at night while i'm trying to look out for deer on country roads...

If it WAS a deer hit, it probably went through the windshield of the SUV that was following too close! Always let the bigger vehicle lead - draft them to save gas and let 'em sweep the deer off the road for you.

JMJ
 
My '09 just got hit from behind a few weeks ago (not nearly as bad as this one though) and the back door ended up with some big cracks in it, so it looks to be made of some kind of fiberglass or plastic.
 
Oh, and by the looks of it, it seems like the rear hatch on the new M5's are steel instead of plastic.
 
I was a little sketched out being there in the first place, behind a body shop on a Sunday, but I did get a good look at the 3rd row seats. They were both in the up position, and the right one was hit from behind hard enough to break free and fold forward. The backrest was shaped like a sideways V so if there had been someone there (I hope not) there is no chance of them getting through that without a major spinal injury. The driver's side 3rd row seatback also appeared to be broken free, and was sitting at an odd angle, facing out the sliding side door. Looks like the rear hatch went in far enough to explode both rear side panels up to about the cup holders. Also, if there was indeed cargo on the carrier, that might have been what pushed the rear door and quarter panels in.

Yes, I was trying to figure out what they hit up front. I don't recall the airbags up front being exploded which I thought was odd.

I wish I knew what that car was headed. I doubt they will fix it, and I would like a few of the GT items off it for out Touring.
 
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A couple things to point out. First off I'm glad that my new 2012 has a metal tailgate instead of the old plastic one. Second, this being a very unusually hard rear end hit with what seems to be a tall SUV or truck and the fact that there was a rear hitch mount platform that could have distributed the hit a little biased to the right side I think overall the MZ5 took the hit pretty well. Looks like even the right side slider still works perfectly. Another thing to note is, notice the sheet metal on each side in the hatch where the glass goes over as well as the thick D-pillar combined with the headrest in the proper position provide almost complete protection of an occupants head. Now consider this, the fact that the 3rd row seats where broken off most likely tells me that there was no one in them to provide weight on them. At any rate, occupants would or did sustain injuries but I'm sure they survived. I do hope everyone that was in there was okay and are recovering.
 
A couple things to point out. First off I'm glad that my new 2012 has a metal tailgate instead of the old plastic one. Second, this being a very unusually hard rear end hit with what seems to be a tall SUV or truck and the fact that there was a rear hitch mount platform that could have distributed the hit a little biased to the right side I think overall the MZ5 took the hit pretty well. Looks like even the right side slider still works perfectly. Another thing to note is, notice the sheet metal on each side in the hatch where the glass goes over as well as the thick D-pillar combined with the headrest in the proper position provide almost complete protection of an occupants head. Now consider this, the fact that the 3rd row seats where broken off most likely tells me that there was no one in them to provide weight on them. At any rate, occupants would or did sustain injuries but I'm sure they survived. I do hope everyone that was in there was okay and are recovering.
+1 everything he said



@ torquelover – do you recall if the 3rd row seat base/cushion shifted? Did it collapse forward, potentially crushing legs? That is more of my concern b/c there is so little space for legs. IF there were passengers in the 3rd row, the force of the impact against the chair back probably push them into the back of the 2rd row chairs, which luckily are sufficiently soft to take a full on face implant, hopefully they are wearing seat belts (Note: must keep area clear). They would have gotten some bruses but nothing life threatening, IMO.

About that hitch, it seems to be on pretty tight and straight but hard to tell. I don’t think anything rode above or on it b/c I don’t think the hitch rack or the hitch itself would have supported the weight since only class 1 or 2 are available. It does look like the hitch rack absorbed some of the force by what looks like wheel imprint. Can you go back and tell us what hitch was used :D Incidentally I’ve been looking for a hitch to also strengthen rear end from collisions.

Regarding the front, if the air bags didn’t deploy yet the hood is gone and there’s windshield damage, I am gong to speculate that the Mz5 went under something. It’s as if the Mz5 driver stopped short of going into (under) something only to have a truck (I’m thinking small truck like utility service vehicle) ram into and pushing it into whatever the object in front. Let the speculations run wild!


FYI, here's a pic of the '06-'10 unibody, which I believe is the same for +'12. Then again, out hatch doors are apparently different!...
Mazda5_Mazda_body_Structure_Extrication_MZ5_safety.jpg
 
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+1 everything he said



@ torquelover do you recall if the 3rd row seat base/cushion shifted? Did it collapse forward, potentially crushing legs?

The bottom seat cushions appeared normal, but they were slightly lowered as the seat backs were folded forward about 45 degrees. I don't know what brand of hitch was on there, it was barely visible and kneeling down on gravel with shorts on seemed like a bad idea. If it is still there next time I drove by I will check it out.
 
I would like to second the sentiment that the 5 appears to have weathered a severe rear impact pretty well. The slider still being functional tells me that the hit was properly distributed by the unibody. My accident with the 07 was a MUCH harder and more complex impact, and I was able to sort of walk away. In my case I was sliding backwards at approximately 45MPH when I was hit by a RAV4 travelling at about 50 MPH. I was hit on the passenger side rear corner, my forward (backwards?) motion halted and my vehicle flung into a ditch on the opposite side of the road. The passneger side slider could not be opened due to the roof and quarter panel buckling, the rear tire ended up being driven up, and through the gas filler. The impact was such that the drivers seat was twisted about 15 degrees on its base shearing the seatbelt mount off the base. The backrest broke, and laid down, the headrest was flung out the back of the car where the hatch should have been. I didn't realize until I went to retrieve my stuff from the car a day or two later that the radio/HVAC panel was hurled out of the dash, something that hardly seems physically possible in retrospect. I realize that the car saved my live that day, and I have since bought another. Although I gotta tell you, I will NEVER buy one of those hitch-haul things....
 
I'm sure I will spark a storm of controversy with my opinion on this, but i fail to see their risk/reward balance paying off in my favor. I haven't ever loaded any car to the point where one of those things would have meant the difference between getting it in one trip and not. Thats just me though
 
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