Abstract
The controversy regarding the safety of post-crash repaired motor vehicles has been simmering for some years. This paper, through case study with specific examples, demonstrates that the opinions of professional engineers and at least some of the repair industrys practitioners and representative bodies differ markedly. While engineers are concerned with retaining structural integrity, crashworthiness (particularly crumple zone performance), dimensional control, systems functionality, etc, the repair industry seemingly is concerned with appearance and panel-fit.
Having identified the key issues, the paper offers a methodology to resolve these and outlines actions to prevent unsafe vehicles being returned to the road, often in the hands of young inexperienced drivers.