Quote:
Originally Posted by Formula413
Lets just say for the sake of argument that larger vehicles are always safer than smaller vehicles, across the board, in every type of crash. Is anyone (on this forum no less) actually advocating their use for that reason?
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From a Physics standpoint, the bumper-height of trucks and SUVs place lower-profile vehicles at a disadvantage.
Newer cars have side airbags and whatnot to absorb such impacts in those situations.
But I'm not going to flat-out say to people to buy a larger vehicle for "safety's sake". We're also not factoring accident avoidance -- larger vehicles generally take longer to stop, are easier to roll, easier to lose control, have less redundancy (read tire pressures), and are unfair in a fight.
Why would someone put a big steel brush-guard on their truck/SUV if it NEVER saw even a gravel road. Deadly aesthetics. Vanity.
My family has decided to "take our chances" by driving cars -- for a variety of personal reasons. In the wake of Will's tragedy, his comments echo the sentiment that we have to research crash data and choose accordingly. In his case, he went with a Gen-2 Metro instead of the first. In our case we bought a newer car for my Wife -- with stability control, full compliment of bags, ABS, good crash ratings, etc. It still gets an average of 30 mpg combined.
...and what about Motorcycles?
Although unscientific, I can say from my past years as a Medic, that in a bad enough accident, it wouldn't matter what someone was driving.
Should we all get our CDLs and drive semi-trucks? It's the safest option.
RH77