Car vs SUV safety

[westcliffe01]

The ultimate car on car crash test
Smart vs Mercedes S class

 

[DarkBlack]

I try not to make all my life decisions based on "mitigating" fear. Since I ride a motorcycle, I would be a hypocrite to say someone should buy a large heavy vehicle as future health insurance against a smaller vehicle during a line crossing, head-on collision.

 

[nc redneck]

I have spent my complete career in the collision repair industry. Cars and technology have changed a lot over the last 10 years or so. If buying a 5 year old or less car or truck weight is a big issue. If buying older than that weight full frame and number of air bags would be the deciding point on safety. Front or rear hits on small new cars do OK due to frame rails and unibody absorb impact, not enough mass or weight to take hard side hit. Ever seen Fit or Smart Car hit a 18 wheeler.
Scott

 

[Egon]

< There are very few conditions that require me to use the F250 in the winter. Usually, the time that I will get it out is when my wife, who works at a hospital, HAS to get to work and we had 18" of snow and the plow trucks have not even started plowing secondary roads (apparently this is now the norm in Jackson County - wait 2-3days before any secondary roads get cleared). We had 2 such occasions this year with deep snow, no plowing and -19F cold along with -40F wind chill. Very dangerous to be outside and potentially fatal if you do get stuck and are not prepared properly for a walk out. We came very close to getting stuck one time but just scraped out of that situation and needless to say there were very few cars on the road except for an idiot new neighbor who thought that his van could handle 2 foot snow drifts.>

Sound like two idiots from the descriptions.

 

[westcliffe01]

If you were to show up at the hospital and be turned away because the staff had not showed up to work, you probably would be singing a different tune. 2 years ago and prior, the road crews would start plowing when it started snowing. Not wait until there was 18" on the ground. If they got in 2 passes of 6" each through the night, it meant that you would find the road passable in the morning. But the last 2 years has been different. It seems that the more property tax you pay, the less likely you are to get services. If I went and bought a Unimog to blow the snow off our roads, they would likely send the police department to shut me down because the goal of the service denial is to push for higher property taxes the next time there is a vote.

Residents seem too dumb to figure out that we should start with the budget, figure out what essential services will cost, then decide how many councilors we can afford and how much we can pay them, and if they don't like it, fire them. The way things are run today, everything gets paid for except essential services, taxes get raised all the time, yet the money never makes it to essential services. There are always too many pet/pork projects that are considered more important.

 

[Egon]

Was the other idiot on a critical job list?

Some hospital personnel will leave for work the day before when the roads are passable.

Hospital staff don't leave till replacements arrive.

 

[westcliffe01]

No, he is retired. And he has managed to get stuck when entering or leaving his driveway (which he refuses to shovel) on every snow event. I don't think he will last long. He moved into the house about 3 weeks before the first snow flew.

There used to be a time when the county would make sure that people who worked essential services could get to work, but 2 years ago and prior this was a non issue since plowing was something that was actually done. Those days are gone now. It seems that the trend is that you are expected to fend for yourself and the majority of people in my neighborhood do drive 4wd trucks and SUV's if they are working and they tough it out. I used my 2 stage snow blower to clear my subdivision road during and after the storm (probably a good 800 yards worth) but that is of little consequence when the primary service road several miles long is unplowed and by that I mean no passage of a plow at all during a storm that lasted for close to 14 hours.

It would be great if all the incumbents would get voted out of our local council, but I'm not holding my breath... There is a much higher possibility of success if you can find a place that is already being run in a sane manner compared to our towns in MI which are being run into the ground and have been for decades.

 

[RalphVa]

In my view, if you're driving a vehicle with a weight of over around 3,300-3,500 #, you're a threat to the rest of us. You're a threat from safety standpoint, and you're raising the price of our fuel due to your excessive consumption of it. Yeah, you're safe in a bank vault unless another bank vault or tank hits you, but you can usually get out of the way with a smaller, more maneuverable vehicle.

As far as going in the snow, we went to numerous ski slopes in snow storms in a rear wheel drive Fiat 124 sedan in the 70s. It had some kind of good combination of skinny tires, etc. that gave it good snow traction. It was about 2,200 #. Rusted out later, but good driving in the meantime.

Ralph

 

[Larry Caldwell]

My mom got into a 40 mph head-on driving a Ford Taurus. Her only injury was a bruised foot, because she had it stomped on the brake pedal when they hit. Crumple zones and air bags really took care of her. Of course the car was totaled, but that is what insurance is for.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I have spent my complete career in the collision repair industry. Cars and technology have changed a lot over the last 10 years or so. If buying a 5 year old or less car or truck weight is a big issue. If buying older than that weight full frame and number of air bags would be the deciding point on safety. Front or rear hits on small new cars do OK due to frame rails and unibody absorb impact, not enough mass or weight to take hard side hit. Ever seen Fit or Smart Car hit a 18 wheeler.
Scott

I knew a guy who hit a dump truck with an F-350. He died. This was just last month, in a new Ford. If you hit something solid, you are better off in the Fit.