IIHS offset crash tests between heavier, larger cars vs. minicars

They featured this "story" this morning on the Today show. It was distilled down for people who do not understand basic physics and they cherry picked the most negative statements for the "story".

Most people who were the intended audience will probably go out and purchase a Tahoe.

 

easy fix. ban the big vehicles for all but professional drivers (no comments on what little effect a "certified driver" can be as far as safety goes is necessary)

 

ok, for a serious response, the manufacturers nailed it when the said that the likelihood of such an event is very small and nothing is perfectly safe. so we have an issue of continuing to waste away our resources for everyone or severely penalizing people who continue to be resource hogs while providing viable alternatives to people who want to be green.

i like Obama but will never forgive his stand on not raising gas taxes. $4 a gallon gas is the best way to equalize the crash field.

he authorized $10 B to fund high speed rail, but the cost of high speed rail from SF to LA would be 45 B , the cost to upgrade current "high speed" (which would not be classified as such any where else in the world because of its under 100 mph average speed) from Boston to DC would be over 10 B.

now i will give him credit that he has proposed funding to build 20 something corridors over the next several decades. well, put a gas tax of a Buck a gallon. that will give us the money to build the lines much quicker... also have the benefit of putting the soon to be available GM workers back on the payroll

**edit**

i guess raising the price of gas is the best way to increase safety. new stats out. highway deaths at lowest level in over 40 years. mostly contributed to people driving less or driving slower to conserve gas...

win: smaller cars, better gas mileage, less foreign oil bill
win: provide funding for greener transportation options...rail power can be 100% renewable right now. air travel with 100% renewable energy..decades, maybe even centuries away

win: jobs and tons of them needed to install and upgrade the rail systems.


so why is gas so pathetically cheap???

 

What part of "Force=Mass X Acceleration" do people not get!!!!

I.E. a SmartCar has a head on with a Expedition, Guess who loses?

And for manufactures saying the tests are not realistic, come visit Los Angeles, every morning I see the results of F=MA on the local streets and Freeways !!!

Sorry, we do not drive our cars like lab rats!~!!

 

Because the previous administration oversaw the destruction of the financial markets. Don't worry, gas prices will climb with a vengeance once the economy starts to recover.

 

A sizable minority of the population would claim there is no such thing, and chalk it up to a magical mystical being who lives in the sky

Take two large vehicles, eg two Suburbans, and do an offset crash with them. They don't do that well

The only time the driver of a H2, Suburban, Expedition, full size pickup, etc, can be a Big Man, walk away and laugh at the unfortunate victim, is when they crash into a Yaris or Civic containing a mom and an infant

 

well you are 100% correct that which is exactly the problem here. we should be taxing gas to get near that higher level now. as market forces drives the price of gas up, the tax is reduced... at least a little.

but with the tax now, the market forces will be unable to increase at a significant rate because consumption who decrease much faster... so with the tax, we get the money to build what we need to get off oil which stop the outflow of cash to foreign countries.

 

I like to see/know what will happen if the 2010 Prius crash head to head with the 2010 Insight.

 

$4 to start is good.

in ANY collision, weight is only part of it. get 2 large vehicles hit each other, betcha neither survives. reasons a large vehicle fares well with a small vehicle has a little to do with weight, but most of it is larger thicker metal, larger crumple zones. overall vehicle weight does have an impact but not as much as you think it does.

i drive a 1300 lb car that is ABS and aluminum on a steel frame... would i crumple??? a little but not much, so does that mean i would fare well in a head-on??...nope

i would bounce off like a ping pong ball...at 35 mph, that would be several thousands miles per hour in acceleration when i my vector changes by 180º in a fraction of a second.

so, no crushed bones... just a major headache

 

That works too!!!

Either way it equals a whole lotta BAD!!!

 

Actually the Prius is steel on a steel frame. High-tensile steel, so lighter than mild steel for the same strength, but still steel. Only the hood and hatch are aluminium.

My roof is rusting slightly where a very large stone hit it. Must get that fixed.

EDIT: it's possible you have some other smaller car, of course... a Prius is more like 3,000lbs - about 1,300kg.

 

LOL!! i should have clarified since my Pri also weighs north of 2900 lbs. my 1300 POUND car is my Zenn. take out the 450 lbs of batteries and its really getting light!!