Quote:
Originally Posted by Vman455
Good, because it's just propaganda. And what the people who espouse this idea fail to recognize is that driving a heavier vehicle increases crash energy for *everyone* involved an accident.
If you want to be safest in the event of a crash (which, first--don't drive unsafely and you will likely be able to avoid one. In 20+ years driving, I have only been involved in two accidents. Both were rear-ends in which the other drivers were at fault), get a car that deforms, not the popular idea of a "strong" car or truck that doesn't. Deformation dissipates energy and increases the time it takes for you to come to a stop inside the vehicle and the vehicle to stop moving, which reduces the magnitude of your acceleration and thus the force that acts on your squishy insides. The same principle underpins the design of airbags.
|
The thing is there's no one perfect factor that makes a vehicle safer than all the others. Sure, we can point out little pros and cons all day. But in the end there are only these lines that can be drawn in the sand, the older the vehicle generation the less safe it is, and vehicles with extremely low safety equipment (e.g. motorcycles and some super small economy vehicles not normally imported to the USA.) Other than that there's no fine line between sedans, coupes, hatchbacks, station wagons, CUVs, SUVs, pickups, minivans, full sized vans, and other similar vehicles. Just pick a row of vehicle that works for you and then pick the one with them best safety features, ratings and statistics.
If according to the IIHS 18 out of every million Tahoe drivers are killed compared to 0 Subaru Legacy drivers, in which vehicle am I safer? The Tahoe, which is a large SUV, or the Legacy, which is a mid sized wagon?