I am debating about getting the euro-shelf, but I have to wonder something- is it safe? In the event of a severe front-end impact- wouldn't your knees expierence unusual stress (From being bent by the lower part of the shelf?)...

Sorry to sound paranoid, but I just keep wondering this...

caio, -Matt

 

someone please move, I accidentally posted in wrong forum...
whoops, time for a strong cup-O-Joe

 

As long as you're wearing your seatbelt, I don't think this should be a major issue. The shelf is actually farther away from your knees/legs than the plastic bolster that comes installed on the car. The cabin would have to be pretty badly deformed to force you into contact with it, at which point you'd probably have worse things to worry about, injury-wise. Just my take...

 

Moderators,
Please move this thread to Interior and Exterior mods.
Thanks.

The Europarcel shelf is safe as far as anyone knows. This question has been asked in the past. No negatives were found.
In Europe it is widely used and they have crash tests as well and the MINI does fine.

In general the MINI is designed with safety in mind so the chance of breaking a leg on the parcel shelf is very very low compared to other less crash worthy cars where injury is highly likely.

 

Thread Moved to Interior and Exterior Mods

Thanks for the e-mail heads-up minihune. :smile:

Dave
dave@northamericanmotoring.com

 

One thing to consider, as safe as the Euro shelf may be, if you have an accident, you have still removed U.S. mandated safety equipment. That probably wouldn't go over very well if you were to be sued by your injured front seat passenger.

 

My parcel shelf is on the driver's side. My injured front seat passenger can whistle up a rope, he/she would have had no effect at all from the parcel shelf.
On the safety note, I would think that moving the point of impact further away from your legs would only improve your chances of escaping uninjured. the only danger is if you have things ON your shelf that then become missiles.

 

There was a link on my local MINI site regarding the impact of the MINI. Here it is:

bridger.us/mini link to MINI Cooper and Ford F150 Crash Test Information

According to this test, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Edited by DiD to fix and name link

 

Having just installed the Euro shelf, I have to say that neither the standard bolster or the Euro shelf are going to hurt anyone. They are both decorative and made of fairly thin plastic and do not provide any structural support.

These are standard manufacture MINI parts and I am so glad to have a the extra storage.

 

I love my parcel Shelf!

 

In the event that the front-end impact is hard enough for the parcel shelf to become harmful I'm pretty sure it'll be the least of your worries because you'll probably be dead

 

US safety laws and EU safety laws are very different. The parcel shelf is perfectly legal in Europe, but due to US laws requiring knee bolsters, US-bound MINIs have the parcel shelves replaced.

Why is there such a difference in laws? US laws are designed to protect those drivers who don't wear their seatbelts. I personally think this is stupid, because such a requirement could actually be dangerous to those who wear their seatbelts. The perfect example is airbags. In order to protect the unbelted heavy male, the automakers were forced to make their airbags more powerful in the US than those in Europe. Guess what!? These powerful airbags end up killing smaller-sized women and babies in slow crashes. Europeans on the other hand, also have very strict safety requirements. However their thinking is more toward protecting belted passengers. Since the parcel shelf is perfectly legal in Europe, and since I wear my seatbelt all the time, I don't worry about it.

If you don't like to wear seatbelts, keep the knee bolster.

 

I did not know the law with respect to knee bolsters. Interesting bit of trivia. I will keep wearing my seat belt and enjoy the little bit of extra room I have thanks to the Euro shelf.