Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Size really does Matter!!

Okay, this isn’t going to be as titillating as you may have thought the subject matter was, but the truth is, there’s been a lot of ink lately about the Insurance Institute’s recent announcement that there are more traffic fatalities when a small car is involved in an accident than there are when large cars or SUV’s are. Now if that isn’t a case of stating the obvious I don’t know what is. The statistics I’ve seen show a ratio of about two to one between SUV’s and cars, and to that end, here are some thoughts I have about that.

My wife and I have always been fans of roadsters and over the last 30 odd years we’ve always owned a small two-seater of one kind of another. We’ve been asked countless times about driving a small car and the dangers we face because of the overabundance of huge SUV’s on the highway today.

Both of us are what I call aggressive defensive drivers, and by that I mean, if at all possible we do not stay behind vehicles we can’t see around, and we never stay in anyone’s blind spot and more importantly, because we drive cars that have a degree of performance, we have the ability to move quickly to avoid dangers on the road. I have to add that there is not any statistical data that I’m aware of the validates my claim of maneuverability keeping smaller cars out of harms way, but non-the-less, I know that I feel better about my odds of staying out of trouble with the quickness and agility of smaller cars.

Okay all that said it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the law of physics is immutable and therefore cannot be denied. So clearly we understand that if there is a collision between a 6000 pound Hummer and my wife’s Z4, the BMW will lose. Yes, smaller cars are indeed more dangerous but my question is, how big is big enough?

A Taurus will likely be safer than a Honda Civic in a collision, as will a Crown Victoria in a collision with the same Taurus, and the same goes for a GMC Denali if it collides with the Crown Vic and on and on. So, it begs the question. How big is big enough? Life is full of risks so what are the issues to take into consideration to help abate this ever growing problem caused by consumers wanting to drive smaller more fuel efficient cars.

The issue is that small cars are here to stay now, and with the Smart car coming to America, there will be even more deaths because no matter how well a vehicle meets safety standards, the aforementioned law of physics holds sway. I recently read that GM is cutting production at six plants that build pickups and SUV’s because of falling sales so it will be interesting to see how the balance of size shifts over the next few years.

The absolute truth of the matter is that each of us is responsible for how safely or unsafely we drive. Unfortunately people in big cars and SUV’s sometimes appear to throw their weight around which causes problems, and sometimes people in smaller cars try to squeeze in where there simply isn’t room because they think they can. We all have to remember that size does in fact matter when it comes to our vehicles.

Your thoughts? visit http://www.twofortheroadusa.com and let us know.