Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2004 22:40:14 GMT From: "James Sweet" <jamessweetnospamail.com> Subject: Re: How much is this car worth? - Ungrateful whiner!
"The Diesel" <hollywood_onealnospamo.com> wrote in message news:e1df7c64.0407091816.5a234e47nospaming.google.com... > I guess you really weren't paying attention to my post. > I would drive the UGLIEST most beat up unreliable car in the world if > it was a very safe car and had a strong boron steel safety/roll cage, > great crash test results, tons of airbags, great injury rates, very > low death rates, etc over the best looking most reliable sportiest, > biggest babe magnet of a car if that car was not a very safe car. You have a very long list of "features" you want, but it seems you're overlooking the big picture. Obviously you want to get from point A to point B in one piece, there's a lot more to the equation than the length of the list of safety features. Most important is the driver, if you're a skilled and attentive driver it'll go a *long* way towards the goal. Next the way the car handles can do a lot to help you get out of trouble. Unfortunatly there's a lot of not so good drivers out there so sometimes an accident can't be avoided but there's plenty of good safe cars out there. Plenty of cars have lots of safety features and even did well on crash tests but still perform rather poorly in the real world. The fuel tank behind the axel isn't a problem, my brother was driving a '79 Volvo with a rear fuel tank, no airbags, just a good solid design by a '97 Honda that was going roughly 40 mph. The Honda crumpled up past the front wheels and dumped fluids all over the road, driver sustained minor injuries. The Volvo drove home with a slightly buckled rear end, fuel tank was undisturbed. That's my only firsthand experience but there's plenty of other examples out there, I've seen lots of 240's that have been hit hard in the rear and have yet to see one where the fuel tank ruptured. Engineers think of this sort of thing so they protect the tank between the heavy steel frame rails below the crumple zone. In the end, my two cents are if you want a very safe car, look into a Volvo 240 or 740 series, they're tanks and they won't let you down. If you want something a little more sleek and sporty but still quite safe consider a Saab 900 or 9000 series. Always wear your seatbelt and don't put all your faith into airbags. In some cases they can save you, in others they can kill or seriously injure you. I personally prefer to not have an airbag, a well designed car with properly used seatbelts is safe and I don't have to worry about an explosive charged bag breaking my nose if I bump a pillar in a parking lot or have an electrical malfunction, both with plenty of documented incidents.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
