Huge study about safety can be misinterpreted by SUV drivers

I don't think so.
When that Geo crumples, what does the roll cage connect to?

 

Isn't that what the guy was heard to say on the way down after jumping
off the roof?
"So far, so good."

 

In one-vehicle crashes, trucks generally do much worse than similarly
weighted cars. I've read multiple places that the best correlation to
safety is not even weight, but cost. That is a small car that is expensive
is safer (according to real world crash data that they evaluated) than a
larger, but cheaper vehicle.

That is simply false. A Ford pickup, for example, is crap. Watch the
crash tests of it. The driver's seat is pushed into the dash by the bed
and the driver is crushed. This can happen even if they are hitting a
Civic. The Civic is worse off than if they hit another Civic, and the
F-150 is better off than if they hit another F-150, but the driver in the
Civic is still better off than the driver in the F-150.

So go make up some more of your false statements on large vehicles and
spread them where people don't know that you don't know what you are
talking about. Better yet, stop spreading any such crap unless you know
what you are talking about.

Marc
For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

 

Because the crash tests that simulate a crash with a deformable object are
pretty close to real-world crashes with vehicles of similar weight. In
such crashes, medium-small cars (like Golfs and Civics) generally do better
than vehicles such as pickups and other heavier trucks.

Could be, but they aren't. Look at actual crash results and get back to
us. My favorites are:

http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/html/0110.htm
http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/html/0126.htm

I happen to own the car that I linked to...

Marc
For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

 

Then we should move everyone currently in an SUV into a Metro because they
crash at an exorbitantly high rate and in the smaller vehicle will do less
damage to others.

Since many of the pro-SUV nuts claim that everyone that doesn't like SUVs
is jealous because they are too expensive and exclusive for the peons, I'd
tell you that you aught to get with them and present a unified pro-SUV
front, as you are claiming that the younger drivers (generally with less
money than older drivers) are buying up the SUVs.

And did you stop to think that the reason the SUVs are crashing more is
because they handle poorly and the drivers are unable to avoid avoidable
crashes?

Marc
For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

 

And with the large SUV, you will be unable to avoid crashes, as your boat
handles like a brick (or is that, "your brick handles like a boat"?).

If you are an incompetent driver that expects to run into lots of things,
then you need a tank. If you are actually a competent driver, you should
be in a better handling vehicle and avoid the crashes. Though in both
cases, a roll cage and 5-point harness will protect you from a much wider
variety of crashes. The only ones where weight would matter is when you
hit a moving vehicle head-on or when someone hits you in the side (and a
good driver should be able to avoid most t-bones when the other driver is
at fault).

Marc
For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

 

Nope. If all cars were heavier, then you'd be more likely to hit a large
vehicle and you'd lose your size advantage.

Marc
For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

 

If every vehicle was 2000 lbs, everyone would be safer than if every
vehicle was 6000 lbs.

Fact is, more of the small SUVs aren't even safe in single car crashes.

Marc
For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

 

Because the statistics indicate that a similarly weight in a car would be
safer than what you bought. If you bought something that is heavier than
the heaviest car available, then the problem is obviously CAFE reducing the
availability of large cars.

Marc
For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

 

I have driven one of the MB ones. I was unimpressed. It handles well for
a truck, but it is beat by most cars. The ML55 AMG that I drove would
actually beat a large number of cars, but certainly not those cars of a
similar price point.

Marc
For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

 

Right. CR, the IIHS, the NHTSA, FARS, and every other place that crashes
vehicles or keeps stats. But then, don't let the facts get in the way of
your fantasy.

Marc
For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

 

Then I guess everyone that teaches defensive driving should just give up,
as all crashes are inevitable and we should just drive tanks and put on our
blinders.

Marc
For email, remove the first "y" of "whineryy"

 

This may be true, but CAFE has also saved lives, because forcing vehicles
to use less fuel helps to reduce pollution, and thus fewer people dying each
year
as a result of pollution-related illnesses. Most likely the lives lost by
one
thing are balanced by the other.

Ted

 

So does that mean that when we negotiate for a vehicle, that we should
try to negotatie the price *upward* instead of downward to make it
safer? 8^)

Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")

 

No you can't. You swerve to avoid another car, or a child who runs out in the
road; your SUV rolls over.

Another SUV hits your SUV in the side; your SUV rolls over.

 

Until it rolls over.

Driving an 8-mpg rolling tank for the one time you might get hit by a lighter
car is like using a Cray supercomputer at work for the one time you might have
to decrypt a message from Andromeda.

 

But most trucks aren't designed with crumple zones to absorb impact energy as
most cars are. The full frames also don't crumple like unitized bodies do.

 

Not necessarily. Because the old designs sell so well and much so much money
for the makers, there's little incentive to make cutting-edge designs.