Which one of these cars are the safest, and which one should I get?

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by The Diesel, Jun 14, 2004.

  1. The Diesel

    Bob Guest

    That's an important point. I drive my convertible with the top down
    whenever I can. In a rollover, I'm probably screwed. Still, like
    Nissan says, I "enjoy the ride". In fact, on a warm day, I look
    for places to go and try to prolong the ride.
     
    Bob, Jun 16, 2004
    #41
  2. The Diesel

    Rob Guenther Guest

    To correct you about Seat's, they are Spanish VW's to be more accurate, as
    they are owned by VAG (Volkswagen Auto Group) and all their cars used VW
    frames.

    I've been in Portugal, which is the neighbouring country, and no one in my
    family found it scary to drive there, or be driven around.
     
    Rob Guenther, Jun 16, 2004
    #42
  3. The Diesel

    Bill Guest

    Who said anything about stationary? Very briefly the sequence went as
    follows. (For those who might not know, in the UK we drive on the left).

    1. I was travelling at 70 in the inside lane;
    2. Said 4x4 was travelling in outside lane, at something more than 70;
    3. Something happened to 4x4 (I never got to ask what) that made it veer
    violently left;
    4. I was in the way;
    5. After side impact from 4x4, the Volvo rolled five times, coming to rest
    in a field some distance off the carriageway;
    6. It hurt, but I lived.

    Bill
     
    Bill, Jun 16, 2004
    #43
  4. Maybe now...but not when I lived in Spain (early 70's when Franco was
    dictator).

    Seats were Fiats at the time.

    Franco imposed a 100% duty on any foreign car imported into Spain at
    the time. He allowed us American's to import one car of our choice
    duty free...if we swore we would not sell it to a Spaniard.
     
    Scott in Florida, Jun 16, 2004
    #44
  5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEAT

    SEAT is one of the leading car makers in Spain. It was founded in the
    year 1950 as subsidiary of Fiat, with an important share of the Spanish
    Government. After the withdrawal of Fiat, the Volkswagen Group, through
    its parent company VAG, became in the year 1986 the major shareholder,
    and in 1990 owner of a 100% of the company.

    The acronym "SEAT" means Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo
    (Spanish Corporation of Private Cars).

    Please, while at wikipedia, learn the fine skill of bottom posting:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_posting
     
    Jyrki Alakuijala, Jun 16, 2004
    #45
  6. The Diesel

    Rob Guenther Guest

    Ah, interesting thing to know - were they ever there own company? :).
     
    Rob Guenther, Jun 16, 2004
    #46
  7. The Diesel

    MikeHunt2 Guest

    Air bag are only effective when they deploy during a frontal
    collision.


    mike hunt
     
    MikeHunt2, Jun 17, 2004
    #47
  8. The Diesel

    MikeHunt2 Guest

    While one is riding in a convertible, they are many times more
    likely to have a bird $#it on their head than they
    are of being becoming involved in a rollover. ;)


    mike hunt
     
    MikeHunt2, Jun 17, 2004
    #48
  9. The Diesel

    MikeHunt2 Guest

    Merely responding to your post that said "My buddy had been hit
    at 60kmh by a front-end loader that backed into the
    intersection..."


    mike hunt
     
    MikeHunt2, Jun 17, 2004
    #49
  10. The Diesel

    Rob Guenther Guest

    I don't know what archaic newsreader you have, or maybe the way mine posts,
    and ends up being interpreted by yours in an incorrect fashion is the
    problem. But on mine all my posts are in the correct order, using MS Outlook
    Express. I hit reply to group on the message I am reading, and my post goes
    below it...

    I've never seen a problem with "top posting" the way it was shown on that
    website... Except when I tried another newsreader program (when I was trying
    out Linux a year ago).
     
    Rob Guenther, Jun 17, 2004
    #50
  11. The Diesel

    Bev A. Kupf Guest

    Ah. I see. You have a different definition of top-posting than that
    which is used conventionally. Here's the conventional definition:
    <http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html>
     
    Bev A. Kupf, Jun 17, 2004
    #51
  12. [] (Wed, 16 Jun 2004 19:55:53 -0400):
    Thank you for quoting over 300 lines of text to add two lines.. (And for
    top-posting).

    Side-airbags are also effective when being struck from the side.. ;)
     
    Svein Tore Sølvik, Jun 17, 2004
    #52
  13. The Diesel

    BrickMason Guest

    Your welcome!


    mike hunt


    Air bag are only effective when they deploy during a frontal
    collision.


    mike hunt
     
    BrickMason, Jun 17, 2004
    #53
  14. Your newsreader is posting just the same way as mine. It is just the way
    you write your comment in the very beginning of the text instead after
    the piece of text that you intend to comment on.
    Not everyone is so lucky. My computer does not run the Express news
    program. I have to use ordinary news. :) I do not have an expert
    maintaining the adware safety and viral cleanliness of my home
    computers, so I only run Linux on the computers that are connected
    to Internet.

    MS Outlook Express is not available on Linux, so I have to use
    Mozilla. I have grown so used to it that I also use Mozilla on
    my Windows machines at work. There the Windows machines are
    professionally maintained by dedicated system administrators, running
    new patches almost daily.

    My friends who are running Windows from home have had their share of
    adware, spyware and viruses. Some have had spambots without them
    knowing. Actually, almost most of the junk e-mail is generated by
    innocent people unknowingly giving spammers a full access to their
    unpatched Windows computers with ADSL.
    You are referring to a concept called threading, not bottom
    posting.
    Perhaps you might want to read the links again.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_posting

    If I had written all these comments in the beginning of this mail, I
    would have been top-posting. Instead, I chose to bottom-post, because
    there is an improved flow of discussion between your text and mine.
    I have used Mac, Unix, Linux and Windows-based newsreaders for about
    16 years (not all of them for that long, of course!). All have had the
    capabilities of threading. I believe that most readers default to
    threading so you just unluckily picked a wrong reader. Try Mozilla or
    Firebird the next time. Mozilla is a good thing on Windows, too,
    both in security and usability. Especially middle clicking and tabs
    are just great.

    But back to subject,
    My vote on car safety goes to Volvo S80/V70, Lexus LS, and the
    larger Mercedes.
     
    Jyrki Alakuijala, Jun 17, 2004
    #54
  15. The Diesel

    David Taylor Guest

    Who said anything about stationary? Very briefly the sequence went as
    Ouch, was just trying to work out the situation. :)
     
    David Taylor, Jun 17, 2004
    #55
  16. As I understand it...

    Franco struck a deal with Fiat to build Fiat's in Spain by Spaniards
    and re label them Seats.

    So in the time I was in Spain (early 70's)...Seat was a Spanish built
    Fiat.

    Franco was very Pro Spain. If you were going to do business then a
    Spaniard had to be a partner.

    There was 100 percent employment during those times.

    ....and you could go anywhere in Spain without fear of any kind of
    bodily harm. Dictators are not always bad...
     
    Scott in Florida, Jun 17, 2004
    #56
  17. The Diesel

    Half a Bee Guest

    I won't totally disagree, but hold on a second...
    I don't think "overblown" is quite fair. If I'm going to have an
    horriffic smash (y'know, where an SUV crosses the highway and hits the
    front corner of my car at 220kmh closing speed, sending me into a spin
    across 2 lanes of traffic and a rollover into a ditch) , I know what
    cars I'd like to be in: Volvo, Mercedes, BMW, Saab and at a pinch,
    Toyota. Minor accidents around town - it probably doesn't matter much.
    Older Volvos are probably no better than new Toyotas, because other
    manufacturers tend to follow with near-identical safety systems
    (Toyota's "Safe-T-Cell" for example) but comparing present model with
    present model, Volvo wins. But the gap between Volvo and "common" cars
    is shrinking. The gap between Volvo and the German cars is quite small.

    What sold me on Volvo? I know that the Volvo salespeople are going to
    be biased on safety, but my local dealer often has photos of crashed
    Volvos to view. These are from people who walked away with grazes,
    bruises and the odd broken bone, and have come in to replace their
    smashed car with a new one. These are photos of cars that have been hit
    at high speed by trucks, have run into cows, and have been in head-on
    accidents with other cars (where the occupants of the other car all
    died). It's pretty powerful advertising. I'm sure that some other car
    dealers could do the same (Mercedes, for example).

    But it all depends on the accident you have. Just hope that you never
    need that kind of protection.
    Not my experience. All cars have minor problems from time to time.
    There are plenty of people driving Volvos that have travelled 400,000 to
    500,000km that have spent no money apart from regular servicing.
    Yep, that's a weird measurement - half. Sometimes I'm accused of using
    150% (-: I agree totally with the importance of avoiding a crash in the
    first place. It's far better not to ever use features like crumple
    zones, roll bars, seat belt pretensioners. A heavy, under-powered car
    with poor steering and bad suspension is more likely to be involved in
    an accident. Add a poor or nervous driver behind the weel and it's
    worse. So I'd avoid anything too old (worn suspension) and too
    underpowered. But if an S80 is on the list of possibilities, I'd say go
    for it.

    One of my irritations with Volvo (and all cars in fact) is that some of
    those active safety systems designed to get you out of trouble (traction
    control, variable damped suspension and weight distribution etc etc)
    aren't standard on lower-end models. It costs more.
    Well, don't expect great fuel economy from an S80 (-:

    Chris
     
    Half a Bee, Jun 19, 2004
    #57
  18. I drive up and down a stretch of motorway every day. Accidents is an
    incredible common occurrence. In one particular week I was queuing in
    the morning AND in the evening every day to get past accidents. On
    some days I had to find alternative routes, i.e. the motorway became
    unusable for it's purpose at shifting traffic. Accidents are more
    survivable these days as cars are much better, in most cases you just
    get crumbled cars but inevitably large upsets in people's lives. I've
    seen people standing on the hard shoulder crying! It just makes me
    wonder how and why it happens, and why so regularly?
     
    Johannes H Andersen, Jun 19, 2004
    #58
  19. Judging the traffic I'm in every morning, I actually wonder the opposite.
    Seeing all these cars at 120+ km/h with more often than not less than 5m of
    space between them, makes me wonder why it's doesn't go wrong more often.

    If an accident does occur it usualy involves a commercial van (like Peugeot
    Partners, VW Transporters, Mercedes Sprinters), that underestimate their
    reaction time and their decelleration rate.

    Tailgating is a big pest around here, but despite this the police only focus
    on people exceeding the speed limit, because that generates much more money.
    In fact our government has ordered the police to issue more fines.

    Mark
     
    Mark Gerritsma, Jun 19, 2004
    #59
  20. The tailgaters are probably the same who will speed. After all, tailgating
    suggests that they're not satisfied with the prevailing speed and wants
    to move faster. They usually get their way since nobody is keen on getting
    their car shortened. Then there are those who deliberately cuts across lanes
    millimeters in front of you, usually someone in a souped up car. Then there
    are also those, when overtaking at very fast differential speed, move as
    far as possible towards your lane to let you feel the whoosh. Just had one
    of those today. All this is immature bad driving that ought to be stamped
    out. BMW drivers usually annoy me the most, but then I stay calm and lets
    nothing affect my driving. I don't know those people, don't want to know
    them, hence no reason to impress them or otherwise.
     
    Johannes H Andersen, Jun 19, 2004
    #60
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