Cash for Clunkers

[TJ_98370]

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You know the occupants did not walk away from this one. What would you rather have in this type collision, the latest generation airbags or good old-fashioned vehicle mass?
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Actually, whomever posted this photo isn't being accurate. The car in the crash scene has what looks to be a 5 bolt pattern on the one wheel that is visible. The Smart Car has a three bolt pattern. I'm thinking maybe it used to be a VW Golf or something similar.
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[rose-colored-coolaid]

[TJ_98370]

RCC - Isn't it a personal choice of acceptable risk? In a collision between a big vehicle and a little one, the little one is going to come out second best, always. Some people are okay with the fact that a collision like the one pictured is rare and accept that risk factor, others want an armored half-track to transport their children to school.
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Personally, I think bikers are half nuts when they ride high traffic city streets because of the possibility of a collision with a mobile something that weighs twenty times more than they do, but that's their choice.
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[WestSideBilly]

[The Tim]

Yeah seriously. My dad sent me that pic in an email a few days ago. My response:

Well, if that's your primary criterion (that your vehicle not be smooshed into a pancake when smashed between two large semis), then this is really your only logical vehicle choice:



I'm pretty sure even my dad's Chevy Blazer would come out of a collision like the one in the link posted by TJ_98370 above looking not much different from the photo in said link.

[WestSideBilly]

[TJ_98370]

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According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the evidence indicates that small cars are less safe than larger cars. According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, small cars are among the safest vehicles out there on the road. I guess you get to pick your own reality.........


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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has released a new report stating that very small cars face significantly greater risk in crashes with midsize cars. IIHS crash-tested three subcompact or microcars – the Honda Fit, Smart ForTwo and Toyota Yaris – versus their respective brand's midsize sedans in frontal offset tests, similar to how the agency conducts all of its frontal tests.
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The results? Physics wins. This is something we mention here on KickingTires and on Cars.com whenever crash-test results like this come out. Crash tests can generally only predict how well a car or SUV does within its class or competitive makeup, not against other types of vehicles. The exception is IIHS' side-impact tests, which simulate impacts with SUVs for every vehicle.
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What these fresh results from IIHS spell out is that in a frontal collision, physics dictate that the larger vehicle in the test will fare better than the smaller one. Force is distributed unevenly, making the small car lose out in any matchup versus a larger car.
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Crash statistics prove this to some degree. In 2007, small-car crashes resulted in a 17% higher fatality rate than midsize-car crashes......]

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provided by The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy

A recent report on auto safety finds that the average sport utility vehicle or pickup truck is more dangerous than most cars on the road, when the risk posed to other drivers is taken into account. The report also shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, many small cars have lower fatality rates among their own drivers than SUVs or pickups. SUVs are the fastest growing segment of new vehicles, today comprising 21 percent of that market, up from 6 percent just 13 years ago.
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The study, "An Analysis of Traffic Deaths by Vehicle Type and Model" (available at http://www.aceee.org/pubs/T021full.pdf), finds small and mid-size car models, such as the Jetta, Accord, and Camry, have driver fatality rates as low or lower than those of any of the major SUV or pickup models. Essentially all popular car models score better than any popular SUV or truck model on deaths to drivers in other vehicles. "Driving a big vehicle and driving a safe vehicle are two different things," said Therese Langer of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, which released the analysis. "This report clearly illustrates the importance of design in determining a vehicle's safety."
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The report was researched and written by physicist Marc Ross at the University of Michigan and Tom Wenzel, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Their analysis is based on "driver death rates," a measure of risk developed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) comparing driver fatalities to the number of vehicles on the road. The fatality data come from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.......

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Consumers shopping for a fuel-efficient vehicle will probably gravitate toward smaller cars. But by doing so, will they put themselves at risk in the event of an accident?
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The cold hard facts show that smaller, lighter cars are generally less safe than larger, heavier cars.......
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Driver deaths per million registered passenger vehicles 1-3 years old, 2007. Source: IIHS:
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Vehicle -- Size -- Rate
Car — Small -- 96
Car — Midsize -- 62
Car — Large -- 64
Car — Very Large -- 35
Pickup — Small -- 104
Pickup — Large -- 90
Pickup — Very Large -- 86
SUV — Small -- 48
SUV — Midsize -- 41
SUV — Large -- 43
SUV — Very Large -- 47
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[The Tim]

You don't need an industry-funded study to tell you what cars are "safer." It's basic physics, as .

If a little car gets into a wreck with an SUV or large pickup, yeah the occupants of the larger vehicle have a better chance of walking away. If two large vehicles collide, the occupants of both vehicles are at greater risk than if two small vehicles collide.

The ideal situation, safety-speaking, would be for everyone to be driving around much smaller vehicles with roll cages, air bags, and the like. Obviously that's not realistic of course, since the only way you'll be able to take away many Americans' SUVs is by prying the steering wheel out of their cold, dead hands.

But does that mean we should therefore all drive around the largest vehicles possible in some sort of arms race to control the largest mass flying down the freeway at 70+MPH? I don't personally think so.

I personally believe that we'll slowly move toward a fully-automated roadway (similar to what was featured in the movie Minority Report). Obviously we won't get there in one step, but I can see things headed in that direction already with the smart cruise control and auto-park features that have come out in recent years. Once we take inattentive / lazy / stupid humans out of the picture and all cars are computer-controlled on a redundant peer-to-peer network of sorts, safety will go way up.

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[PublicEnemy#1]

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[PublicEnemy#1]

[WestSideBilly]

[TJ_98370]

Okay, I don't particularly like this car (maybe the hatchback) and I am definitely NOT going to buy one, (I already own two Nissan's that I am I very happy with), but you have to admit that $5,490 for a new car would be extremely tempting for anyone looking for basic transport. It even has six airbags! What's not to like?
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Is this the car that finally motivates you to trundle in that '89 Plymouth Voyager to trade in? Come on people, the "free money" won't last forever!
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[TJ_98370]