Quote:
Originally Posted by mdm
It's not that simple, and there are many aspects to vehicle safety. Yes, many trucks or SUVs are (or were) unsafe, prone to rollovers, no proper protection of the occupant area, etc.
On the other hand, if a lighter/smaller vehicle collides with a heavier one, occupants of the former always have relative disadvantage. That's pure physics.
Another aspect is that many large vehicles have their bumpers far to high to provide protection for occupants of smaller vehicles. It's semi trailers, many large trucks and delivery trucks, school buses, raised pickups, some SUVs.
If you rear-end them even in a well designed car, chances are that you are screwed because all your crumple zones will underride the large vehicle's bumper and the main hit will be on your A pillars, windshield, and face.
|
Bingo.
Any modern car is 'safe' relative to history. Air bags, sophisticated crumple zones, 'smarter' seat belts and accident avoidance systems (autonomous braking for the win!) see to that but they are still playing with the rules of basic physics, just optimizing every layer possible until the inevitable energy gets to you (or leaves you?). It may have been on this forum that I read about the Mercedes sonic trauma prevention system. I think it's the E-Class emits are loud pulse prior to imminent collision to brace your ear drums and protect your hearing from the bang of the crash. Trippy.
But rules is rules, and might has right. I'll put my family in a 2013 5,000 lb Tundra than a 2017 2,800 lb BRZ if they are both heading towards one another at 65 mph.
That being said, I, too, think Subaru's in general have a higher degree of intelligent safety design in their chassis and are built are more 'real life' scenarios than simply passing with the high test scores on standardized safety exams.