Roller bawl

6 weeks ago driving my new Nissan Qashqai Visia on a B class Suffolk road at 40mph at a right bend, I espied a pool of water on the nearside and decided to brake lightly. As the nearside wheels entered the pool, the car violently turned right, and I struggled to control the car as it now bounced about quite bizarrely. I lost it at right angles to the road and entered an open field. Unfortunately for me (and the car) the road level was three feet higher than the field. I looped in and rolled twice, ending up on my right hand side. The roof crashed in, squashing me into the seat, and I was unable to get out. Some locals who had seen this horrendous event rushed over and righted the car. Fire tenders, etc. shortly arrived and cut me out to be taken the West Suffolk Hospital. I was X-rayed and scanned for spinal damage. Two vertebrae are fractured, but no surgery was required. Is this typical of Visias, and have you any history of such events? What action might I take against Nissan, and would the British Road Research Laboratory be interested for testing Visias?

Asked on 9 May 2009 by

Answered by Honest John
I'd guess that the pool hid a pothole. The combination of slight braking and the n/s front wheel hitting the pothole stopped that wheel and the rest of the mass of the car revolved around it. The same thing happened to me many years ago in a modified Mini van. One if its tiny front wheels caught in a pothole, flinging the entire van sideways at 60mph.
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