Gone is the excuse that you need a 90k escalade suv to be “safe” on the road.
The x-Star crash ratings are worthless, as they only compare how safe you are against cars of the same class. A fat SUV will probably fold that car to scrap metal anyway.
EMISSION STANDARDS EMISSION STANDARDS EMISSION STANDARDS
The rise of large cars has never had anything to do with safety or more storage space or anything even remotely like any of that.
Emission standards are based on size and weight. So instead of giving a fuck about environmental damage they just started making everything bigger. And since Americans are especially susceptible to “BIG TRUCK MAKE ME FEEL LIKE BIG BOY” it’s most prevalent there.
this little car came out of the assembly line with 120hp.
For a car under 900kg of total weight, it is a lot of power. It would fishtail like an angry beast, burn rubber at a slip of the foot and make you crap yourself if you felt like pushing it a bit over the safety zone.
It was a defining car: you could buy it but it wasn’t guaranteed you’d own it.
There have always been 5 star small cars, nothing new or special here.
The bigger car will still win any engagement though, so no change there.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t SUVs not safernl to being with? As in it was all marketing and warped perception?
They’re safer against other SUVs but the occupant safety comes at the expense of everybody else on and around the road.
Obligatory NJB video cause I have it on hand: https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo He hits some key safety points around timestamps 7:30 - 11:30.
It really depends on the car and its safety features. There are 5 star compacts and 5 star SUVs. There are also 1 star cars and SUVs.
Yeah, of course. That’s basically what I meant: that some people buy SUVs on the assumption that they’re intrinsically safer, which is not true.
Years ago there was increased rollover risk from the higher center of gravity of an SUV, but I don’t think that’s generally a problem anymore
The intrinsic safer comes from mass. In car vs car collision, a 1 star giant SUV will roll over top a 5 star compact and be fine. However if the 1 star SUV hits a tree, guardrail, etc, the 1star passengers will be harmed/die where the 5 star compact car passengers in the same accident will survive.
The solution of course, is to make an SUV with the mass of a tree, then even it will win :D
Nobody ever needed an SUV to be safe. But companies need to stop selling reasonable sized cars if favor of SUVs to maximize they gains…
