CARMAX, AUTOTRADER, or????

[bruce1]

Why on a cold and slippery winter morning are most of the vehicles I see in the ditch four wheel drives with too high a center of gravity or hopped up Hondas?

If you do want a small car the Hyundi have an excellent warranty

Bruce

 

[trumpeting_angel]

As a mini-van driver, I'd LOVE to see it mean that these cars are much safer. But they're being driven around by people like me - soccer(hockey)moms with a couple of kids in the built-in kid seats. Little enough testosterone, and in all likelihood very little macho need to prove that our vehicle is faster than yours. In theory, we should be driving safely to protect our children, should be traveling famliar roads, and shouldn't be out in the ice storms trying to get back from the game in another state.

And of course, we are never distracted by crying, fighting, or even just annoying children in the back seat.

Hmm, maybe these cars ARE safer!

Anne

 

[sgeeeee]

Metal is good, but so is a low center of gravity.

Some stats from a recent NY Times article:

minivans: 2.76 deaths per billion miles driven
large cars: 3.3
SUVs > 5100lbs: 3.79
midsize cars: 5.26
midsize SUVs: 6.73

Huh? Crash tests and rollover tests can tell you something (but not everything) about a car's safety, but this kind of data seems too easy to skew.

Assume a family has two vehicles: a 4WD SUV and a smaller car.

It's snowing outside and they need to go somewhere. Which are they likely to take?

One member of the family has to run an errand 3 blocks away and one has to drive 20 miles down the freeway to a nearby town. Which one is likely to take the SUV and which one is most likely to be involved in a fatal accident?

You can go on forever.

But recent government rollover tests do prove that at least some SUVs have potential rollover problems. I always review that kind of information before I buy.