In our last session, we ran into a problem when the we tried to bust through a chainlink fence in our recently stolen van. Acording to the rules, when you ram something the damage is based on the speed you're going. After you've rammed whatever you're ramming, your vehicle then takes half the damage that you inflicted. So our van had to resist 16 dv for blasting through a chainlink fence. This seems pretty broken.
I don't remember exactly what the old rules were in sr3, but I remember that it compared relative body attributes of the different objects and based dvs on that.
any comments/ideas?

Yeah those rules suck. I played car wars for a long time in my youth so when vehicle scenarios go outside the realm of SR4 rules I default to my car wars knowledge and make something up.

I would treat it as an attack to the barrier, with the vehicle being a melee attack and the DV equal to whatever it should be from the Ramming damage table. If the barrier is destroyed, the vehicle blows through, and you make the vehicle test to avoid crashing. Reduce the vehicle's speed by some amount you feel is appropriate. If the barrier isn't destroyed, the vehicle comes to a complete and sudden stop (i guess that's an automatic crash).

The DV the vehicle has to resist would be either 1/2 of what it inflicted on the barrier, or the barrier's structure rating, whichever is lower.

If the vehicle wants to "sideswipe" the barrier instead of ramming it head on, the target takes 1/2 of what it normally would and the ramming vehicle takes 1/4th. Reduce speed by a bit, make vehicle test to avoid crashing, but the vehicle isn't going to automatically crash if it doesn't destroy the barrier.

that sound ok?

I think they assume you're be ramming other cars, not chainlink fences.

Yeah, i think the assumption is other cars, walls drones, or other substantial objects. Wich bring into question the barrier ratings and their structure points, wich are based on the 10cm depth (roughly 4"). don't know of many chainlinks that are more than 1/4" (discounting post's and other structural members.)

I would probably rule that the van wouldn't even take any damage except some scratches on the paint. Unless the fence had some monowire on top or something, which would be a damage test for the wheels. I think the collision/ramming rules are mostly for things with substance, like cars, people, dragons, etc. Materialized spirits as well.

I think a chainlink fence gets its structure rating from its elasticity, and that makes up for its lack of depth. It's basically a metal net with reinforced sides. Speaking of which, if you assume the fence posts are placed at 2-3 meter intervals, there's a chance of hitting one with something car sized (handling test?) and that would certainly damage your vehicle. If you get stopped by the fence, at the very least, everyone inside will still need to resist damage from the crash.

That said, if you don't think ramming a chain link fence is going to total your car, then make something up and don't let it.

if your van has armor greater than half the amount of damage it dealt to the fence, it takes precisely 0 damage from ramming, because the damage would be converted to stun, which of course has ansolutely no effect on an object.

does that help any?

Here's my 2¥ and house rule.

I start by calculating the collision velocity. I do this by adding the speeds together for a head-on collision, taking the speed of the ramming vehicle for a side-impact collision, and subtracting them for a rear-end collision.

Then I use the table on page 160, and use the highest Body of the two vehicles for the DV calculation.

Then I apply the damage to both vehicles. This is done on the theory that the impact energy is the same for both vehicles, but a larger vehicle (with a higher Body Rating and possibly more Armor) simply handles the damage better.

what wound up happening was that we ignored the rules and said the carr took minimal damage. it was later shut down remotely anyways so we had to abandon it before we could loot it at all.

One a related by separate note:

My reading.

'Crash test' knocks you out of the chase.... but doesn't do any damage if failed?

so is basically a stalled engine/spun out (but didn't actually 'hit' anything)

Is that the 'RAW' or did I miss something.

To me I have house ruled if you don't get atleast 1/2 the threshold on the crash test, you actually hit something and take damage as per ramming. (modifier for my above post on possibly 'less' if you actually crash through something... sometimes its funner for the van to end up 'in the building' rather then just totalled')