"Versa best of the bunch"

[BenDupre]

Reported on Good Morning America this morning. Nice pictures of the cars crashing. All they really had to say about small car safety was that big cars are safer. they obviously didn't do their homework or even read the ratings. There are lots of big cars and trucks that are death traps. Good news is that almost all manufactures have improved safety over the last five years. Notable exception: The Chevy Trailblazer.

The story carries a 1sec cameo of me driving my Versa. The ABC news this evening should show more video of my car and/or parts of an interview. I don't know how much footage they will use. Watch ABC tonight.

Ben

[Ever Victorious]

TiVo set...

Sheesh, GMA hasn't even been on this morning on this coast. Stop it with your damn efficienty!

[BenDupre]

Gosh... all my best stuff is on the cutting room floor.

I gave them some good stuff too. Guess "versa is a safe car" was not the story they were running...

IIHS doesn't give out any better ratings than "good, good, good" but the point they wanted to make was "big cars are safer" and it's not even true.

Oh well...

Ben

[Ever Victorious]

Gosh... all my best stuff is on the cutting room floor.

I gave them some good stuff too. Guess "versa is a safe car" was not the story they were running...

IIHS doesn't give out any better ratings than "good, good, good" but the point they wanted to make was "big cars are safer" and it's not even true.

Oh well...

Ben

They've been hammering the physics point of it, that bigger vehicles will always be "safer" because their mass gives them a more even playing field with SUV's.

Hey, uhm, anyone thought about maybe trying to find a way to get RID of all of those unnecessary giant SUV's? C'mon, I can't tell you how many times a day I see an Escalade or Expedition being driven by a lone driver, no passengers.

Most American families can't even fill all the seats in a 7-passenger minivan/SUV. why do we need to keep cranking them out tha big?

EVERYONE would be safer with fewer large vehicles on the road.

[versula]

So all week I have been hearing that the Versa is the safest small car from all my co-wokers and finally got around to reading the STUPID IIHS report. First this shows how absolutely stupid Americans are when it comes to reporting news. The Versa is not even classfied in the same class as the Fit, Yaris, etc. according to the IIHS. It is in the next class up which means it is not the safest small car at all (especially since it is next to impossible to get ABS).

Second point is that the IIHS is pushing people into bigger cars by using scare tactics. We would all be safer driving schoolbusses or tanks or whatever huge vehicles have great crash worthiness. But bigger cars are not inherently safe because they are bigger. In fact, in a side collision, wouldn't I be safer in a Versa with side airbags that sits up higher than I would be in a Crown Vic? What they really need to say is that "The IIHS, beholden to the desires of the car/oil industry, wants you to drive bigger cars because they cost more and they use a lot more gas". Instead of saying how smaller cars are more dangerous, they really should start charging drivers of huge SUVs higher insurance rates. They are the ones causing the damage and they are the ones making it unsafe, not the other way around.

They've been hammering the physics point of it, that bigger vehicles will always be "safer" because their mass gives them a more even playing field with SUV's.

Hey, uhm, anyone thought about maybe trying to find a way to get RID of all of those unnecessary giant SUV's? C'mon, I can't tell you how many times a day I see an Escalade or Expedition being driven by a lone driver, no passengers.

Most American families can't even fill all the seats in a 7-passenger minivan/SUV. why do we need to keep cranking them out tha big?

EVERYONE would be safer with fewer large vehicles on the road.

[marleyfan]

(especially since it is next to impossible to get ABS).

Well certainly not in Canada where ALL SL's come STANDARD with ABS.

[versula]

Of course we all know that in Canada you get the ABS on the SL. But the IIHS is a US based org and Good Morning America is a US based/filmed program. If I read that they get ABS on SLs in Canada one more time I am going to puke, seriously. The next time I plan on driving up to Canada to buy a car though, I will be sure to ask...

[marleyfan]

Isnt EVERYTHING US based? My point was that the availability of ABS is geographic dependant. It is not "next to impossible to get." The IIHS site and this forum are read by Canadians as well as Americans. The complaints about lack of ABS on this forum may lead Canadians to think that the same applies here if one has not read other threads about it. Next time I'll add a caveat on my post that only Canadians should read it so as not to offend the ABS challenged.

[mkaresh]

Most crash tests are run in such a way that a car is effectively in an accident with an identical car. So all else being equal, larger cars are safer. But I also feel that having everyone get a large vehicle to be safe would end up with everyone in tanks.

One thing many people don't know is how much heavier current small cars are than they used to be.

[BenDupre]

That logic doesn't hold up. If all cars were tested as if they hit themselves, then the dummys would tell the true safety story. Which they do, but that does nothing to prove big cars are safer.

This is why the tests are so closely controlled. They are supposed to report the impact/injury factors on the dummy. The crash tests are designed to take size of vehicle out of the equation. That's why the people saying large cars are safer are just mis-stating the facts. Many small cars exhibit lesser forces on the test dummies than larger ones. The only time bigger is better is when you're in the bigger car hitting a smaller one. Big car hits wall or big car hits big or bigger car, then you're in the hands of the safety systems and design of the vehicle. The ABC news and the IIHS did a poor job of clarifying this point for the viewers.

Ben