Marketing Efforts Hide Real Safety Levels of Smaller Vehicles
Marketing Efforts Hide Real Safety Levels of Smaller Vehicles
08-24-04, 10:30 AM
#2
Lexus Champion
safety seems to be a bigger and bigger selling point these days, and with the tactics shown in the article, it makes you wonder how safe you really are. lately it seems many car companies are deceiving the very people they want to buy their products. 
08-24-04, 12:05 PM
#3
Lexus Fanatic
Look.....any schoolkid who has had fifth-grade science can figure out that , all other things equal, a smaller, lighter car is going to come out second-best in a collision with a larger, heavier vehicle. That is simply the laws of physics......... mass, weight, and speed = energy. The heavier and faster the vehicle, the more impact force.
However.....what that article DOESN'T point out is that many small vehicles, ESPECIALLY small sports cars like the Miata, MR2, Mini Cooper S, Lotus Elise, etc..... have such amazingly good handling and such a low center of gravity that their sheer agility alone allows them to evade a lot of potential accidents simply by going around them at the last second. You can often avoid an obstacle in a Miata that a Town Car would plow right into like a freight train. And some small vehicles, like the VW Beetle and Subaru Forester, have done very well in NHTSA crash tests.
However.....what that article DOESN'T point out is that many small vehicles, ESPECIALLY small sports cars like the Miata, MR2, Mini Cooper S, Lotus Elise, etc..... have such amazingly good handling and such a low center of gravity that their sheer agility alone allows them to evade a lot of potential accidents simply by going around them at the last second. You can often avoid an obstacle in a Miata that a Town Car would plow right into like a freight train. And some small vehicles, like the VW Beetle and Subaru Forester, have done very well in NHTSA crash tests.
08-24-04, 12:54 PM
#4
Lexus Champion
mmarshall is exactly right- a smaller car with an attentive driver has a better chance of avoiding an accident in the first place.
One of my other cars is an '85 MR2- this is easily the most nimble and fun car I have ever driven.
However, SUV driver's can't seem to see it (in spite of the fact that it is BRIGHT RED), or they don't look for it. Either way, when I drive this car, I am acutely aware that I am likely to get cut off by a soccer mom in a giant SUV, so I drive defensively - stay out of their blind spots (which is anything rearward of their front fenders, it seems) and run like hell if they are in a parking lot with the reverse-lights on!. The nimble handling, spirited accelleration, and awesome brakes of this car have (at one time or another) allowed me to avoid sitiations which otherwise may have invoved an insurance claim....
Also, a smaller car with a lower center of gravity is less likely to end up on its' roof in an accident avoidance maneuver!
One of my other cars is an '85 MR2- this is easily the most nimble and fun car I have ever driven.
However, SUV driver's can't seem to see it (in spite of the fact that it is BRIGHT RED), or they don't look for it. Either way, when I drive this car, I am acutely aware that I am likely to get cut off by a soccer mom in a giant SUV, so I drive defensively - stay out of their blind spots (which is anything rearward of their front fenders, it seems) and run like hell if they are in a parking lot with the reverse-lights on!. The nimble handling, spirited accelleration, and awesome brakes of this car have (at one time or another) allowed me to avoid sitiations which otherwise may have invoved an insurance claim....
Also, a smaller car with a lower center of gravity is less likely to end up on its' roof in an accident avoidance maneuver!
Last edited by SoCalSC4; 08-24-04 at 12:55 PM.
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