MOTORING CORNER: “Huge Vehicles Vs Smaller Ones”

IN this time and age, the majority of vehicle owners are busy hunting for fuel-efficient vehicles, this probably due to the world economic crunch as well as changing consumption patterns and tastes. This might most probably influence the choice of smaller cars as compared to huge cars that as conceived to be fuel guzzlers. By taking such a choice, will they be compromising themselves in the event of an accident occurs? The bare facts show that smaller and lighter vehicles are regarded to be generally less safe than their larger and heavier counterparts. Nonetheless, there is still a lot more, you can do in making a choice of small but safe small vehicles. Assuming that you are a good driver, your chances of getting involved in an accident are beyond your own control; this is because the other road user may not be as good as you are! You could be driving across a road intersection and get bashed in the side by someone that has violated a red traffic light. Your chances of survival, or avoiding injury, may greatly depend on the design of the car and the safety equipment installed therein. At that instant, everything depends on how safe is the vehicle you chose! Still, you cannot protect yourself against every danger. And life is full of surprises. You may want to save on fuel and reduce emissions, but you also want to be safe. What do you do? You choose the safest car you can afford that also provides good mileage per unit of fuel. The basic factor in a car’s ability to keep protect you during an accident evolves around the safety equipment installed therein, the vehicle’s weight and its resistance to rollover. While small cars don’t roll over easily, they lack weight and are less likely to have advanced safety features like stability control or full side curtain airbags. According to the Insurance figures in the USA figures, there were 96 fatalities per million registered vehicles for the small car category. That figure drops to 62 fatalities for the midsize class of cars and 64 per million for large cars. In the SUV category, the numbers drop substantially across all size levels. Interestingly, the size of the SUV driven didn’t make much difference; the death rate for a small SUV (48 per million) was only a point higher than that of a very large SUV. On the other hand, the deaths in pickups are higher than any other category, even for the smallest pickups. This is because of their tendency to roll over. So if you want a smaller car (for its fuel economy or lower cost), think twice, how can you get the acceptable safety levels? It is highly recommended to review all the safety features in as you can afford. At the top of your shopping list should be stability control and side-impact airbags. These features are fairly common and not particularly expensive. It’s also advisable to buy a car that can easily accelerate from zero to 60 in under 11 or 12 seconds, so you can manage tricky merging situations in high traffic areas. motoringcorner@live.co.uk

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MOTORING CORNER: “Huge Vehicles Vs Smaller Ones”