small car worries?

[schmeep]

most of us on this site seem to be driving vehicles on the smaller side of the spectrum (i guess for the obvious reasons),

does anyone else worry about safety in a small car?

no car is completely safe, especially suv's with their tendencies for rollovers, but i would imagine small cars are definitely at the disadvantage in most situations.

[kickflipjr]

I have always liked small cars. They arn't as safe, but most hypermilers are going slower anyways. Small cars these days are way safer then 10 or 20 years ago. They are also heaver a '92 Metro is 1650lbs VS. '05 Aveo is 2350lbs. I guess that weight must help a bit in crash safety.

[MetroMPG]

When I got the Firefly, I was a little concerned about the size at first. It took a little getting used to (eg. the effects of wind buffeting).

When my dad first saw it, he questioned its safety.

"It's safer than my motorcycle," I said :) Similar to theclencher's story.

I would drive a smaller car. When I ride in other people's (larger) cars now, they feel absolutely massive to me.

I've also taken a lot of driver training, and used to teach defensive driving. That probably colours my view of what's dangerous or not.

[tomauto]

It does depend on what you are hitting, if you are hitting a non-moving object, i.e. a tree, you would be just as likely to get hurt in a car as an larger truck or SUV. In national tests trucks actually score very low in these situations, their frames get bunged up pretty badly.

[onegammyleg]

hehehe :D , I once heard a saying that said that , ¨no one has even died in a crash between two Fiat Bambinos¨ (tiny bubble car from the late 60's and early 70's)
(its truthfullness is not gauranteed)

who knows if it was true , but it is a very interesting statement anyway.

If all cars were lightweight and high strength for their size just image how many lives would have been saved over the last hundred or so years we have been driving around this planet.

In the USA you are 3 times more likely to get killed in a car accident than being murdered.

[onegammyleg]

But to answer the topics question...

I do not worry about the safety of my small car - However I do worry about the crack head coming my way in a Hummer doing 30 over the limit.

[The Toecutter]

That's always what scares me when I'm on the bicycle- getting mowed down from behind.

Has happened to me by some ***** driving an SUV. She ruined my bike, and then proceeded to speed off before I could obtain the license plate number. If I ever do start riding a bike again, I will start carrying one of my guns, for very obvious reasons. Disrespecting bike riders like that is not cool.

I feel exponentially safer in a Triumph GT6 than on a bicycle if that says anything; Lord knows those aren't the safest cars on the road. I prefer small cars to larger cars because I've had my share of 'near-accidents', and had I been in a larger, less-manueverable vehicle at the time, I'd probably be dead. Getting run off the road by an 18-wheeler is not fun.

[Compaq888]

I feel safe in my car. The only thing I hate about small cars is when a crash happens most of the time the vehicle is disabled. The vehicle will protect you but won't be able to drive any further.

If I had a large vehicle like a SUV after somebody hits me I'm sure I'll be able to chase them down if they run.

Toecutter I hear you on the gun. If the bike or car is SOL the 900mph bullet will still catch up to them. I'm a pretty good shot with a baretta, I'm sure I can shoot out their tires or their skull. Hit and run drivers don't deserve to live anyway.

[JanGeo]

I have avoided getting hit in my Geo MANY time because it IS small and manuvers very quickly as well as stops fast too! Smaller target is harder to hit. Had I been in my Geo instead of my Dads buick I wouldn't have a whiplash injury - Geo is a couple feet shorter and better head rest.

[Ryland]

a few years ago when I got rearended in my '85 civic by a pickup trick, I was looking around for a simaler car and my mom asked if I was sure that I wanted to get another small car, and my reaction was "of course, something even smaller might be nice" that is when I ended up getting the CRX HF, and the only time I didn't feel safe in that was in strong cross winds with semi's passing me (worn out suspention made it jump around in cross winds), a few years back I was reading an artical that was talking about vehicle safty, and people killed per 10,000 cars on the road of differnt modles, it didn't give a full list, and I'm not sure where you would find a full list, but it did say that for every 10,000 Ford exporer's on the road, that vehicle is at fult for killing 220 people, that includes hitting people on bicycles, on foot, people in other cars, and drivers and passengers of those vehicles, the honda civic was 25 people per 10,000 vehicles on the road.
So why would a smaller car be responsible for fewer deaths? it seems to me from watching other drivers that they can't handle the size of vehicle that they are trying to drive, and that in it's self isn't safe.

I also found it intersting a few weeks ago on car talk they had a list of the safest drivers by the line of work they were in, apparently farmers are the safest drivers.

After my own mom questioning if I wanted to drive a small car, she ended up getting a Geo.

[Matt Timion]

I drive one of the smallester cars in America, at least that I've seen. I often refer to my n600 as a "motorcycle with walls." In reality my car is powered by a motorycycle engine and IS a motorcycle on with walls.

I full recognize that if I get hit at high speeds I probably won't survive, unless I'm one of those rare instances that get launched from my car and land on a truck transporting matresses or something.

Anyway, my solution to this is:

Don't drive my n600 on the freeway.

Not only does it have a max speed of 70-75mph, but there is no crossbar on the doors to take the brunt of the impact.

That's about it. I only drive my n600 around town, which makes my max speed around 45mph. At 45 MPH I am able to actually dodge accidents if they arise.

However if I were in a Metro, mini cooper, or CRX I'd feel safe. Those things have nice crumple zones.

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Eh, I figure the smaller the better. Especially wrt bikes because they're so manueverable. Supposedly it's roughly twice as dangerous per mile traveled on a bike compared to a car, but the assumption was that only ~1 in 280 people bicycle, and that those people only bicycle 30 miles per year, which seems really, really, really low. I'm guessing that it's much safer to bike than drive assuming an accurate number of vehicle miles traveled. In terms of risks to your life, even if bicycling is twice as dangerous as driving per mile, if you do it consistently your risk of dying from heart disease or other obesity related health problems supposedly drops by a fact of ten! If anything, lack of physical fitness kills more people than anything else, and is what we should really be worried about wrt to not dying.

[psyshack]

I drive one of the smallester cars in America, at least that I've seen. I often refer to my n600 as a "motorcycle with walls." In reality my car is powered by a motorycycle engine and IS a motorcycle on with walls.

I full recognize that if I get hit at high speeds I probably won't survive, unless I'm one of those rare instances that get launched from my car and land on a truck transporting matresses or something.

Anyway, my solution to this is:

Don't drive my n600 on the freeway.

Not only does it have a max speed of 70-75mph, but there is no crossbar on the doors to take the brunt of the impact.

That's about it. I only drive my n600 around town, which makes my max speed around 45mph. At 45 MPH I am able to actually dodge accidents if they arise.

However if I were in a Metro, mini cooper, or CRX I'd feel safe. Those things have nice crumple zones.

Drive that Honda on the freeway. The door intrusion bar would be needed more on city streets then a fwy/hwy. :)

I was raised in small cars. Have driven them all my life. I have no fear in compacts, subcompacts or micro's.

This dosent mean I dislike sleds. I would really like to have a Chrysler 300E Hemi car with a super charger on it. But alas I will prob. never own a huge cool sedan again.

Ive thought about pulling all the air bags out of my Civic and selling them on E-bay. Along with all sorts of other things that weight the car down.

Saftey and all is cool. But what we need in America is for folks to just try and drive right.

[schmeep]

thanks for your insights and opinions!

i read an article a while back that said the safest vehicle is a large car (chrysler 300E hemi might fit the bill), apparently suv's are not any safer than a small car because of their tendency to roll over, but i think they definitely give the occupants a sense of security because of their size, which might make them more brave (or stupid)

what pisses me off is that car companies aren't mandated to make their cars safer, which they could easily do. i dont' know how many of you have seen this test crash of a smart car at 70mph into a concrete barrier:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/60538/smart_car_crash/

if this car can have such a rigid safety cell, why don't ALL cars have that, at least surrounding the passenger compartment?

[The Toecutter]

if this car can have such a rigid safety cell, why don't ALL cars have that, at least surrounding the passenger compartment?

To shave a few hundred bucks off the manufacturing cost and place the gains into profit margins.

[philmcneal]

However if I were in a Metro, mini cooper, or CRX I'd feel safe. Those things have nice crumple zones.


this reminded me of a story about someone dissing the CRX's safety because he was in a low speed accident and his rear was crumbled like nothing. Even though that crumble was designed to be crushed so that the force energy from the impact won't reach the driver. Unfortnately the driver took this the wrong way and went , "man any faster, and I could have been crushed like my rear!"

[schmeep]

What's the big deal about safety equipment anyway? Is everybody planning on going out and getting crushed?

driving is a chaotic business, i'm sure no one plans on getting into accidents, but they sure have a way of happening even if people practice defensive driving because there are a lot of dorks on the road who don't.
auto accidents are a big killer and i think we should be taking safety equipment as well as driving skills seriously.

this reminded me of a story about someone dissing the CRX's safety because he was in a low speed accident and his rear was crumbled like nothing. Even though that crumble was designed to be crushed so that the force energy from the impact won't reach the driver. Unfortnately the driver took this the wrong way and went , "man any faster, and I could have been crushed like my rear!"


but there is a limit to how effective a crumple zone is, and the smaller the car, the smaller the crumple zone.

[ketel0ne]

I have no concerns with small cars these days. Worst wrecks I have ever seen involved large cars with bench seats from the 70's and 80's. I once saw a telephone pole split a olds 88 down the center. Oddly that same turn 20 years later is what is safer not the cars. You can not get to that curve doing more than about 35mph with the lights and stop signs in place within 1/8 of a mile to it. The whole driving landscape has changed and with it so has car safety.

[Hot Georgia]

My Civic has an exellent safety rating, and safety was #1 in my automobile choices, 2nd was economy.

But I can tell you I feel 100% safer if in our Grand Caravan. Actually it's our 2nd Caravan, the 1st was totalled at only 18,000 miles by a compact pick-up truck which hit the passenger side sliding door going excess of 60 (In a 45 zone). It pushed us 15 feet down the road and turned us 90 degreese.
My son of 7 years old at the time who was next to the door only bit his lip and was our only injury.

Poor van-
The floor was buckled like an accordian and made the seats skew. Both side doors wrecked. The roof twisted and cracked the windshield. Much more damage. Suprising the large sheet side glass was still intact.
The driver of the pickup truck suffered a number of spranes and his knee with both hands were broken and hit his head on the glass. His whole front clip was crushed.
Both vehicles were written off by our insurance companies.

I thank God we're all fine now.

Still, if I'm in my Civic 1st in line at a light at a busy intersection the fleeting thought passes through my mind of a crazy wild speeder in a large vehicle loosing control and creaming my side.
I can also tell you that I don't just pass through a green light without consiously scanning cross traffic.

The way I see it is if it's train vs semi-truck, the semi-truck looses. If it's semi-truck vs SUV, mainly SUV looses. SUV vs small car...well you get my picture.
Still I don't think it's something to obsess over.

[Randy]

The IIHS (http://www.iihs.org) has stats on what vehicles tend to kill their drivers (in Status Report 40-3). It's not as simple as bigger=safer. Smaller cars often are safer in real life, probably because drivers are the most important safety feature of any car.

After I got rear-ended in my Accord, I really wanted a Crown Vic something huge like that (I've never felt comfortable in trucks/SUVs, even my F250). But it went away in a few weeks and I was back to liking small cars.

People probably care too little about traffic deaths. It's been five years since the retina-searing horror of almost 3000 dead, but nobody much cares about the daily traffic reports adding up to 200000+ dead since then. We could do a lot to stop it, too... but it's not a big priority. The best way to avoid it is to drive less, and if you do drive carefully... single-vehicle crashes are still the biggest killer.

[tomauto]

Sad but true fact, people dont mind death when it happens slowly, and not publicized.

[Matt Timion]

The IIHS (http://www.iihs.org) has stats on what vehicles tend to kill their drivers (in Status Report 40-3). It's not as simple as bigger=safer. Smaller cars often are safer in real life, probably because drivers are the most important safety feature of any car.

After I got rear-ended in my Accord, I really wanted a Crown Vic something huge like that (I've never felt comfortable in trucks/SUVs, even my F250). But it went away in a few weeks and I was back to liking small cars.

People probably care too little about traffic deaths. It's been five years since the retina-searing horror of almost 3000 dead, but nobody much cares about the daily traffic reports adding up to 200000+ dead since then. We could do a lot to stop it, too... but it's not a big priority. The best way to avoid it is to drive less, and if you do drive carefully... single-vehicle crashes are still the biggest killer.


I've made this exact point to people before and they didn't believe me.

I had a co-worker once tell me that she believed that more people die every year because of plane crashes in America than car accidents in America.

[tomauto]

People just get numb to facts, until it happens directly to them. It happend to my classmates mother, since then, that section of interstate has seen massive changes...now it has a median fence where there previously wasn't one and a driver came careening from the oppposite traveling lane striking them.

[cfg83]

Part of my commute is the 710 south freeway in the morning. I am being passed and surrounded by Semis on the way to the port at Long Beach. If I had a CRX I think I would feel OK, but I don't think I would feel safe in an Insight because I think I would need that little bit more "umph" under the pedal.

I will always prefer small cars, but I remember something I saw one day. An SUV had hit a Nissan 240SX. It had gone over the front drivers wheel and crushed it's way into the driver's side. The cops had covered the victim with a sheet. It was obvious that the SUV's tall bumper was the reason that the person was killed.

I'm sticking with small cars, but my safety is 90% in my hands, and the rest is out of my control.

CarloSW2