Small car safety problems: It's physics, stupid

NN&V ^ | 5/20/09 | Nuke

[grandpa jones]

Obama's plan to put everyone in high-mileage vehicles by 2016 is much like any utopian dream. The goals are noble -- saving the planet, reducing fuel consumption, yada, yada, yada...

BUT, as with most liberal fantasies, it is the unintended consequences that come back to haunt us.

In this case, it is the safety issue. This CBS video report from the Insurance Institute should sound a warning to everyone.

[Tammy8]

Sticker shock is the reason we can’t have all the bells and whistles they have at the track. We could have them, but few could afford them.

[mrmeyer]

And I am sure that the suburbans the .gov uses will be exempt as well as limousine that drives Obama around.

[grandpa jones]

Does anyone want to guess what will happen to insurance rates when more people are badly injured due to flimsy vehicles?

Not to mention the trial lawyers. They've got to be salivating at the prospect of chasing all those ambulances.

[Carley]

I live in a high rise building. 300 families.

There is one (1) smart car in the garage.

There are a couple of hundred big full sized sedans and SUVs, mostly BLACK.

Can’t imagine any or all of us siddenly trying to plug in our electric cars, or for that matter, getting rid of our cars in exchange for riding around in cars that weigh the same as a paper towel cardboard tube.

[Dixie Yooper]

Excellent point, and he now travels with a big fleet of eight cylinder gas guzzlers

Even worse if he should fly anywhere. They load his car and fleet of Suburbans onto an AC-130 gun ship and fly them to the same destination to be used there.

[Carley]

LOL.....one of our cars is a Chrysler 300 Millennium.

Gas guzzler supreme.

[The Sons of Liberty]

But I guess Obama can live with that. Can you?

zer0 will be riding in an armored limo (until someone gets a look at his birth certificate). The problem is that as long as large trucks and other large heavy vehicles are on the road, a small car at their mercy. As important as 0bama thinks he is, he can't repeal the laws of physics.

[Joiseydude]

I’ll buy one of these cars the day after I see the presidental motorcade made up of these cars

[Natural Law]

"Not to mention the trial lawyers."

They would be a major instrument in driving up insurance costs.

[AnAmericanMother]

Ha!

When my Ford F-150 was in for maintenance, the only loaner they had was a little Geo Metro . . . ! If I had a ramp, I could have driven it up into the bed of my truck.

Talk about a study in contrasts. I would not even go onto the interstate in that little thing. It was like driving a shoebox on a roller skate.

Easy to park, though, especially in my space under my building where it takes a contortionist to get my F-150 in there.

[Joiseydude]

Wonder if Obama is going to buy one of these cars to chauffeur his rug rats to school and back?

[freespirited]

He also keeps the White House thermostat around 80 in the winter while lecturing us about energy use.

[freespirited]

I imagine the Secret Service takes them to school in one of the big black SUVs.

[Joiseydude]

Well, if a big, black SUV is good enough for his kids, it’s good enough for me.

[DCBryan1]

SMART CARS AREN'T:

[grandpa jones]

I wouldn't want to see Obama, or any POTUS, past present, or future, riding around in one of these death-traps. Imagine being in a motorcade that could be disabled by a pot-hole?

In fact, I don't want to see any citizen riding in one of these things, unless of course it's because they choose to do so, rather than because they are forced to by government edict.

[grandpa jones]

Man, oh man! What a crunch.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

“I do wonder if the very small Indy cars can survive 150mph crashes, why can’t that technology be in our cars, big & small?”

Because it’s really expensive (an Indy car tub is made mostly of carbon fiber). Also, part of what makes a high-speed crash in an Indy or F1 car survivable is that lots of parts fly off the car, which dissipates the car’s kinetic energy. You really want a street car hitting something near you and exploding into shrapnel?

[ikka]

the people I see driving them seem tense behind the wheel

People who have drive the Smart cars say that it requires much more focus in driving than a regular car.

[Vaduz]

Wonder if obama even owns a car or if he can drive one?