Car mpg ratings going down

Actually pretty sturdy little critters. You should have seen my nephew's when they pulled it off the hydro pole he wrapped it around. He didn't have a scratch. ANd his had 300,00km on it and was getting pretty rusty. It's the only car my brother ever gets for his 3 kids. Oldest 2 each on their second ones, youngest daughter on her first (actually second too, but it was because her dad had hers and another one - put them up for sale, whichever one sold first went - and it was the wagon she was driving, so she got the sedan) Son put his wagon sideways into a post about 6 feet in the air, and older daughter got her hatchback rear ended - so now son has an XR2? (whatever they call the little Escort coupe) and daughter has a sedan.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca
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No, most of my driving is in town - and since most accidents occur in town, town driving tends to be safer as far as survivability goes.

I generally keep up with traffic, and take secondary roads when I don't want to be pushed 145km/hr by all the gasshog speed demons out there.

I don't mind high speed driving when I can maintain a safe distance both ahead and behind me - which isn't very often on the 400 series highways up here. I've slowed down a bit as I've aged - and the speed capability of my cars has gone up. I remember when 140kph was wide open, and I've driven well over the 160kph on many occaisions in my youth.Back then gas was cheap, and I had no responsibilities.

My Pontiac TranSport does just over 1500RPM at 60mph (100kph) in overdrive - and about the same an8 80kph in third. It's aerodynamics are VERY good, but driving a steady 80-90kph gives significantly better mileage than trying to drive 100-120, and having to change lanes/accellerate all the time to maintain that speed.

Open road high speed cruising (no traffic) isn't that hard on gas. On a given trip I can do it in 2 hours on a half tank, or do it in 3 on just over a quarter tank.Mostly open roads - a trip I do quite often. Generally it takes me 3 hours. Sunday night in the snowstorm (almost a blizzard) it took over 4.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

The law of odds say that won't last long.

Reply to
Bob Brown

The odds are these "accidents" in small cars will eventually kill you or put you in a wheelchair for life.

Small target hit by larger target, larger target wins [odds]

Reply to
Bob Brown

BTW, I love the way the word "accident" is thrown around. Very few, maybe 1%, of all car wrecks are true "accidents". Most people crash because they did something really stupid or the other people did something stupid.

Car "wrecks" is what we should talk about.

Reply to
Bob Brown

What is it with everyone using the word "accident" all the time? Most of these are WRECKS where someone did something stupid or was trying to prove something. Like teach a tailgater a lesson or get to work even though YOU DECIDED it's ok to leave 20 minutes late.

Those are not accidents.

Slipping on ice on your steps on home is an accident.

Reply to
Bob Brown

I believe that you say those are not accidents because they could be avoided with safe driving practices.

This, too, can be avoided with some easy measures, like putting salt on the steps.

This, too, is not an accident.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

What is the law of odds? I have never heard of it.

Reply to
Jeff

Larger target hit more often than smaller target (odds). In any event, if you're belted lap & shoulder like you should be, you're just about indestructible up to a 60 mph collision speed - reality of physics and proven fact, backed by 30+ years of statistics. If you believe hiding behind a larger mass alone in a collision will save you from injury or death, good luck.

Reply to
Sharon Cooke

Typical Yank Tank Hyperbole.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

So is hitting black ice at 45mph on the freeway overpass and ending up flipped on your roof on the road below like the poor sucker who almost landed on the car of a co-worker Wednesday evening. Big pickup truck didn't help him at all.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

Fancy talk, but you still die.

Reply to
Bob Brown

Law of odds. Odds are far better for survival in a larger car/vehicle.

How many people in compact car crashes versus people in SUV's die?

You can see a car wreck involving a compact car, the person usually dies or has life altering injuries. The SUV driver usually lives and suffers no injuries.

BTW, you will notice that when accident deaths are given by car type they fail to mention the injury type. Being in a vegetative state or a wheelchair for life is not exactly a good outcome. Those subcompact cars will give you those results.

When you have 12 inches of space in the compact car for you head to hit something it is not safe. The bigger SUV's give you double those kinds of distances. It matters a great deal.

If subcompact cars are so safe why don't cops use them? You could make them really fast so don't use that excuse. Don't use the excuse of where to put a prisoner, paddy-wagons could be used.

I think you all are being very silly defending the safety of a small vehicle.

Reply to
Bob Brown

More spouting after a fundamentally wrong guess.

Reply to
dold

Odds of surviving the crash, yes. Odds of avoiding the crash, no - so odds of surviving, no. Much better odds of surviving if you don't crash in the first place.

How many SUVs crash vs small cars?

Not if two compacts collide, or 2 SUVs.

I dissagree. Usually in the compact you either live or die. In the big tank you may survivewith serious injuries. No matter, it's the BIG vehicles that are dangerous to the little vehicles - not the little vehicles that are inherently unsafe. I'd have been dead 35 years ago if I'd have been driving a big car instead of my 1960 Morris 850. (would have been head on with a 65MPH 390 Ford Galaxie - the little Mini was able to get out of the way where even my Valiant would have been flattened.)

Because a donut stuffed 250lb cop won't fit comfotably in one. You can't haul prisoners. They do not project a "macho" image. Lots of other reasons far more convincing than crashworthiness.

And with today's fuel situation, extremely silly and shortsighted defending the Hummers, Escalades, Avalanches, and the like. And F350 SuperDuties as personal vehicles.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

You seem unable or unwilling to answer my question.

Reply to
Bob Brown

$3.00 per gallon gasoline is not only cheap, it is sinfully cheap for what the product gives you. Other than Uranium fuel rods for a nuclear power plant you just can't get more bang for the buck than with gasoline.

Saving a few dollars per month is silly when you consider we all do other things far more wasteful. You NEED transportation and then complain about gasoline costs versus the safety of the car. But do people complain about food prices?

I do not understand why you all keep saying that smaller cars are safer than larger cars.

NHTSA statistics should bear out information to support your claims on small car safety. Could you or someone else please provide some data from NHTSA's website to support the claim that a smaller car is better?

Even if you had ONLY small cars or ONLY big cars it wouldn't change the overall safety of either type of car.

Their are more SUV's than ever before. Are you saying that more people die every year? It increases with the greater amounts of SUVs each year? Is their a chart showing a parallel increase in SUVS sales and car deaths?

I'm just asking because it seems counterintuitive to say a smaller car is safer than a larger car.

Reply to
Bob Brown

Unwilling would be the right answer.

Check with your local constabulary, although most in North America accept the certification of the California Highway Patrol or Michigan State Police. That would be for a high speed pursuit vehicle, with separate specs for front and rear wheel drive.

You must be unaware of the cities using the Toyota Prius, and other cars that wouldn't meet your definition of safe. Those aren't subcompact, but size, not safety, puts a lower limit on effective size usable for police work.

Reply to
dold

I can see this subject of safety has made many people angry. I will cease the conversation. I thought we could all agree on a point or two, I was wrong.

Good day.

Reply to
Bob Brown

I'm not necessarily. What I AM saying is big is not always better, or even safer - and big "yank tanks" are environmentally insane. I've owned a few. I've owned a few really tiny ones. At my size (over 6 ft, over 200 lbs) the really little ones are not terribly practical for me. Particularly when I need to carry stuff around. Something like a Corolla, or better yet a Vibe, would suit me just fine, but I'm stuck with a budget of about 6 grand per vehicle.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

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