Huge study about safety can be misinterpreted by SUV drivers

But only half as bad as driving a small 4 door car, so it seems.

 

Maybe the original chuckle head should have posted the whole chart then
huh?

 

Oh do they? Have you read said statics yet Marc?

 

A driver doing something really stupid, or a moment's inattention, and

Not really, as the relationship between accident avoidance ability and
accident survivability is not linear. That is, with SOME certain SUVs, you
might have a SLIGHTLY better chance of surviving a collision with SOME
certain other vehicles. But then again, with any decent handling car (not
necessarily a performance oriented car, either), your chances of avoiding
the accident in the first place are much better, and your odds of surviving
one are not significantly decreased.

In short, the SUV bulk gives some drivers a false sense of security just as
the better handling of cars gives some drivers a false sense of security,
ALSO. But even a below-average driver will NEED to crank hard on the
steering wheel EVENTUALLY, to save someone's life. This is an unavoidable
eventuality, even if you drive your SUV as if it is the piece of chit that
it is. So WHEN (not if) that moment comes, you're better off to be driving
a car. -Dave

 

Simple question . . . do you even know what CAFE stands for? -Dave

 

Now, don't get me wrong..... when you were looking for a new vehicle, you

Not as odd as you might imagine. My wife is thinking of buying a new
vehicle. Let's see, we're down to the short list of (if she had her way) a
Trailblazer, a Forester, a (Ford minivan, name escapes me at the moment), a
Ford Explorer, a Kia Sedona, a Hyundai Santa Fe and . . . a PRELUDE!!! (do
they still make that? she used to own one and loved it, wants another) I'm
pulling for the Sedona as the least of the evils. -Dave

 

That's quite the list of mechanical nightmares (excluding the Forester).
No they don't make the Prelude anymore but she might consider a Honda
Odyssey given the other choices.

 

Isn't it odd how statistics don't compare how many accidents were avoided by
small cars vs. the accidents avoided by larger vehicles? I'm sure it would
be a real eye-opener. Unfortunately, we'll never see the statistics for the
accidents that were avoided. -Dave

 

Tell me Marc, which do you think handles better, a 2003 SUV or a 15 year

Now fast forward fifteen years. Which do you think handles better . . . a
15 year old shitbox SUV with bald tires or a 30 year old shitbox car with
bald tires? Hint: It aint even close, assuming that they are both still on
the road. -Dave

 

Actually, that's pretty accurate, if we're talking about the SUVs that SELL
WELL. The ones that get good mileage are enough like cars that they don't
appeal to SUV buyers. -Dave

 

Repeal CAFE and ask us again in about ten years. -Dave

 

Fast forward 15 years and there won't be any cars left to hear you tell
it, they will all be destroyed by SUVs.

 

Wellt here's one that gets below 10mpg that I can think of it that one
just bearly sells at all.

 

The forester is really just the newest version of subaru's station wagon.
They might market it differently, but it's a station wagon. (unless I
remembered wrong and now look stupid ) Not an evil thing, just a
AWD wagon in the tradition of the original AMC eagle.

 

Repeal CAFE and what, bring back the 454cu "family sedan"? Now there's
a plan. Offer it in 4wd and maybe I'll buy one.

 

My 91 GMC K2500 pickup with a 350 engine gets 17.6 MPG highway and you think
saying an SUV geting 8 MPG is accurate?
Just what SUV are you thinking of here?
Even the largest of them should get 14 or better, though I don't have
accurate numbers handy at the moment.

 

This is a stupid attitude.

These studies are free information of the taking. Consumers can use them to
slightly increase their odds of surviving an auto wreck Auto manufacturers
can
use them to redesign their products to make them safer.

Unfortunately, the auto manufacturers all have your attitude - which is were
gonna
do what we keep doing and **** whatever anyone else has to say.

Thus, it's up to the consumers to force the automakers to improve their
products.
If comsumers all feel as you do, then their buying habits won't change and
the
automakers won't change. Fortunately, auto purchasers generally do seem to
care
about this kind of information, and their buying habits do change as a
result, and
as a result of that the automakers design safer cars.

There's an excellent chance that you, sir, are alive today because of a
safety
improvement in an automobile, and you may not even be aware of it. If you
ever
had a near miss that you avoided because you saw the headlights quickly
enough,
or stopped in time before smashing into something, or anything like that, or
your
mother or father or their mothers and fathers ever had such an experience,
you
should be more appreciative of the efforts of people trying to publicize
less-safe
vehicles.

Ted

 

The car based ones used to be called station wagons. Since that designation
isn't considered "cool" to the type of people (trend followers) these
vehicles are aimed at in the market place these overpriced tin cans are
designated as SUVs.

 

What would that have to do with vehicle weight? Knowing our cars would be
tin-and-plastic pieces of shit would we all be mortally afraid to ever
pass anyone? One of the _last_ things we need on the road is an increase
in the number of timid, terrified drivers in gutless mouse-mobiles.

The amount of money one spends on a car is an individual's choice, up to
their limit--and by the way it is actually _more_ expensive to design a
lighter car, all else equal, than a heavier one. That's one of the main
unfortunate effects of CAFE laws--making large cars so expensive to
engineer that they become uneconomical to produce, so anyone looking for a
large, solid vehicle has to buy a truck, which is much less
crash-compatible and uses far more gas than any similarly hefty car ever
would. The only reason compact cars are less expensive in the first place
is that no one is going to pay more for less metal when they buy a car.
They're actually sold at a loss, by and large. With no large vehicles for
comparison/competition, just exactly how long would _that_ continue?

Variable cylinder displacement and hybrid technologies will vastly reduce
the amount of fossil fuels vehicles will use, and a switch to hydrogen
fuel cell technology will end its use completely. At that point it will
not matter how much vehicles weigh as far as pollution is concerned, nor
how unstable petroleum supplies become.

It is not the problem of the other vehicle owner if the car you _choose_
to buy will put you at a greater disadvantage in a collision; if you don't
like the odds driving a Geo Metro, don't buy one--I certainly won't.

(This does not hold for light truck based vehicles--many of them override
automobile impact guards, which there is no excuse for.)

This does endanger other vehicles on the asphault--much more so than
having them drive at prevailing traffic speeds. It causes irregularities
in the traffic flow as other vehicles are continuously passing them, and
also a much increased hazard for other traffic as they pull out to pass
each other--both immediately, by moving very slowly in the passing lane,
and indirectly, by creating a rolling block leading to further congestion
in the traffic flow. All of which contributes to a significantly
increased likelihood of collisions at those points.

As much truck traffic as is reasonably possible should be replaced by rail
transport--on main trunk routes the latter is much more efficient.

No it isn't, there are and will continue to be far heavier vehicles such
as 20,000-80,000lb busses and semis, that at any remotely reasonable speed
will still have far more impact energy than any car or light truck; the
smaller vehicles will still need to be reasonably sized (e.g. ~4000 lb.
cars, which are rather moderate in weight compared to some that were
rolling off the assembly lines 25 years ago) in order to have strong
enough frames to give their occupants some semblance of a chance in a
passenger vehicle-large truck collision.


--Aardwolf.