jamesqf -
(written while RH77 was writing response #16)
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
Would you care to offer some evidence that US safety standards are in fact more effective than European ones? My impression is just the opposite: that once you correct for the higher population density in Europe, and the greater amount of travel on divided highways here, you find that it is in fact safer to be driving a European car than an American one.
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This sounds like a PhD thesis. You also have to account for the almost completely different built environment (aka legacy medieval roads), differing car culture, auto/weight density, auto vs stick, blah blah blah.
I think the make-up of cars in the USA is such that there is a higher % of SUVs, aka heavier cars. This means the EU designs would be in a context where they would be more likely to be squished.
Instead of waving the crash tests, just publish the results and allow 3 and 2 star cars into the USA. That way, we could make our own decisions. That would increase our auto insurance, but at least it would be an Eyes-Wide-Open venture. EU style Opel Corsas would have higher insurance anyway.
Wouldn't waving the crash tests just raise auto-insurance prices for all cars?
CarloSW2