It's Official: SUV owners survive crashes 50% better

[cindylou]

I hear this shit all the time and it always makes me laugh. Won't drive a minivan even though you have a family and it's the most practical way to go. Instead buy a gas guzzling SUV with inferior safety ratings to haul your precious cargo around because you think you're still too young to look like a "soccer mom" even though that is exactly what you are.



FYI- this is directed to ALL mothers that say that.

lol I know this wasn't just directed at me, but I'm not a soccer mom and I won't buy a vehicle I don't like. You know people buy certain cars for a variety of reasons mixed together, each person different no reason any better than any other. I have a car. That works fine with one kid. Safety matters to me now that I have a kid but it is not the only factor in the decision. Practicality almost has never entered into my car buying decisions. lol Not that I'm buying a car any time soon, my opinion could change once I start hauling kiddos around everywhere...but as it stands right now I'll never own a minivan.

 

[miplank]

lol I know this wasn't just directed at me, but I'm not a soccer mom and I won't buy a vehicle I don't like. You know people buy certain cars for a variety of reasons mixed together, each person different, no reason any better than any other. I have a car. That works fine with one kid. Safety matters to me now that I have a kid but it is not the only factor in the decision. Not that I'm buying a car any time soon, my opinion could change once I start hauling kiddos around everywhere...but as it stands right now I'll never own a minivan.

I'd agree with you with just having one kid...I'm more talking about the mothers that have 3-4 kids and want a school bus of an SUV that beer bongs gas and has 4wd, but then in the entire time they own it it has never even been in 4wd.

Then after they own one of those and are tired of filling it up all the time they come in wanting to trade it for something that will haul 7 people and get good mileage. Oh, but they won't drive a minivan.

also, as a parent safety shouldn't be the only factor, but it should be your most important reason.

 

[Mr. dB]

I'm complaining about escalating the use of fuel efficiency standards to create artificial markets for cars that consumers don't want and that are less safe. It's a retarded idea, regardless of administration.

What's new are two elements: First, we now know for a fact that bigger, SUV-style cars are safer. Second, despite this knowledge we'll still try to force consumers into less safe cars.

Consumers should be able to make their own choices, balancing fuel economy, safety, convenience, luxury, and a whole host of other factors into buying a car -- without government "help". That's not a super-radical idea.

Seems only fitting that CAFE might help shoot down the SUV. The SUV as we know it was created by CAFE in the first place. When the CAFE standards first came into effect in the late 1980s, trucks were either exempted or had a much more lax standard. Anyway, the car makers discovered that they could take pickup trucks, turn them into giant station wagons, put nice interiors in them, and get around the CAFE fleet numbers. So they loaded up the dealers' lots with Suburbans, Tahoes, Blazers, Explorers and Expeditions, and a trend was born.

So now that SUVs have lost their unfair regulatory advantage, people like you are boo-hooing.

 

[mrplunkey]

Seems only fitting that CAFE might help shoot down the SUV. The SUV as we know it was created by CAFE in the first place. When the CAFE standards first came into effect in the late 1980s, trucks were either exempted or had a much more lax standard. Anyway, the car makers discovered that they could take pickup trucks, turn them into giant station wagons, put nice interiors in them, and get around the CAFE fleet numbers. So they loaded up the dealers' lots with Suburbans, Tahoes, Blazers, Explorers and Expeditions, and a trend was born.

So now that SUVs have lost their unfair regulatory advantage, people like you are boo-hooing.

I'm certainly not boo-hooing. I like being one of the few (or better yet, only) tanks on the road.

Who knows, I may get lucky and get your Tercel caught in the grill of my range rover one day!

 

[miplank]

I'm certainly not boo-hooing. I like being one of the few (or better yet, only) tanks on the road.

Who knows, I may get lucky and get your Tercel caught in the grill of my range rover one day!

I would hardly consider a range rover a "tank"...it's a lil bitty girly suv.

 

[Mr. dB]

The RR does have that "Sloane Ranger" stigma, on the other hand it'll go over grades and get through bogs that will take down any of the GM or Ford SUVs.

 

[miplank]

The RR does have that "Sloane Ranger" stigma, on the other hand it'll go over grades and get through bogs that will take down any of the GM or Ford SUVs.

yeah, but how many of the RR's in the US on the road to you actually believe are ever even driven off of pavement?

 

[Mr. dB]

Oh, and any report about SUVs offering improved crash safety only apply to the ones made in the past decade. Prior to about 2000 or so, trucks weren't designed with the same kind of passenger cages and crumple zones as passenger cars, and the whole firewall would collapse in quite moderate accidents, dumping dashboard and steering column right in the driver's face. No side-impact protection either. They were death traps. It's only when federal crash standards were extended to trucks that the manufacturers started to bring truck and SUV crash safety standards up to the same level of engineering that was going into passenger cars.

 

[Mr. dB]

yeah, but how many of the RR's in the US on the road to you actually believe are ever even driven off of pavement?

0.01%. SUVs are used as urban assault vehicles these days, the off-road abilities are just for bragging rights.

And in the winter these off-road abilities are just enough to get your truck somewhat farther from home than a car before it too gets stuck.

 

[mrplunkey]

0.01%. SUVs are used as urban assault vehicles these days, the off-road abilities are just for bragging rights.

And in the winter these off-road abilities are just enough to get your truck somewhat farther from home than a car before it too gets stuck.

This