I can tell you who wouldn't notice in any case: that guy driving the SUV in front me this morning, whose kids were using the rear seat for a trampoline. And also my neighbor down the street who drives her SUV with her baby variously seated or standing in her lap.
You are right, Keith, about there being no direct connection between vehicle size and safety. It has a lot more to do with the number of functioning neurons in the driver's brain. Some heavier cars are so stiff that they transfer the force of a collision to the occupants; a well-designed lighter vehicle will crumple (by design) to absorb the force of impact without transferring it so directly it to the occupants. Features such as low center of gravity and optimum weight balance, along with anti-lock brakes, redundant brake lines, full-time all-wheel drive, etc., are probably better indicators of safety than sheer mass. These "active safety" features are no substitute for passive safety features but there isn't a driver on the road who wouldn't prefer avoiding an accident to surviving one. I used to do a lot of writing for Subaru and remember how their vehicles became safer, quieter, more powerful and more fuel-efficient as they shed weight. I'm sure it is pretty much the same with most other manufacturers as well. Perhaps people fixated on mass as a safety enhancer only need to put on a few hundred pounds of fat to be better protected in any auto . . . Christopher Witmer Tokyo Keith Addison wrote: > Quite a large proportion of Japanese cars are REALLY small (not > exported). I've driven a couple of them, they're pretty cool. Nippy, > you can get away. But, on the roads, here as elsewhere, you also get > a lot of big cars, a lot of vans, delivery vehicles, trucks, big > heavies. If this BS about small cars were true, if it had any reality > at all, the Japanese would most definitely have noticed it some while > back. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> 4 DVDs Free +s&p Join Now http://us.click.yahoo.com/pt6YBB/NXiEAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
