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I am trying to work out how buying a car with the highest possible 'safety rating' will affect the behaviour of its driver. Will the comfortable feeling that he/she may only break a leg instead of getting seriously crushed, make him/her drive just a little less carefully? One can't generalise, but I don't believe there can be no influence at all. I think it may be yet another example of statistics being interesting but not necessarily a wholly good thing.
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Above all the overriding way to decreasing your chances the of being injured in an RTA is to drive carefully yourself and at all times be aware of what other lunatic drivers might do to increase your chances of injury.
Having said that I was lucky to be driving a Mitsubishi Galant when an Escort van collided head-on with me at 50mph, so I do see the advantage in driving a safer usually bigger car to further decrease you chances of injury.
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I am trying to work out how buying a car with the highest possible 'safety rating' will affect the behaviour of its driver. Will the comfortable feeling that he/she may only break a leg instead of getting seriously crushed, make him/her drive just a little less carefully? One can't generalise, but I don't believe there can be no influence at all. I think it may be yet another example of statistics being interesting but not necessarily a wholly good thing.
This was apparent for years before all the mainstream manufacturers decided that "safety sells", when Volvo drivers were renowned for being arrogant on the road as they perceived themselves to be in a "safe" car.
FWIW, I bought a T-reg Mondeo last month for SWMBO to drive my daughters (aged 5 and 3) around in, and I feel that it was the safest practical choice when all was said and done, taking into account everything from how easy she found it to drive through to how much it would cost to insure.
Also, I had a Nova run into the back of my Octavia tonight, causing about £1500 worth of damage to my car. Fortunately for me everything did its job and I got out without even the first hint of whiplash. Maybe you could add the Octavia to your list?
Deepest sympathies to you and to your friends' families at this time, I have never had anything like this happen to anyone close to me but I can imagine how devestating it must be.
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"I am trying to work out how buying a car with the highest possible 'safety rating' will affect the behaviour of its driver."
It has to have an influence. If you knew the car you were driving could hit a brick wall at 60 with no damage to it nor its passengers, you would drive it very differently to a car made of paper. It's just a question of where your peception of the car you are driving lies between these two extremes.
I currently drive a 320 with 'dynamic stability control' and I know that I can sometimes be careless when cornering in the wet with the knowledge that the car won't 'let go' unexpectedly. Without the abs/traction control/stability control, I'm sure there are times when I'd drive more slowly, just because I don't know exactly where the limit of the car/conditions/surface are and would leave a fair margin of safety and would therefore drive slower in certain circumstances. I don't beleieve I'm putting myself in any more danger by letting the car find its limit of traction, but does this increase the hazard I present to other road users around me?
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Safety features on cars (and all other safety measures) seem to reduce the chance of serious injury but have less effect in fatalities.
During the last 10 years KSI in the UK have reduced by 20%, from 50k to 40k, but fatalities have only come down by 5%, from 3,650 to 3,450.
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This is becuase fatalities generally occur at higher speeds - the more severe the crash or the faster you drive, the less you can expect either passive or active safety features to be able to do in order to avoid injury.
Whilst i do appreciate the value of safety features such as seat belts and front airbags, another point to note is that many safety features are now fitted primarily for marketing reasons, and are unproven in the real world. Laboratory and NCAP tests can only tell you so much about the effectiveness of a particular device - until such a device has been observed in the range of crashes that happen in real life, it cannot be hailed as a lifesaver.
My point is, the single most effective way to lower your chances of death or serious injury is to drive intelligently - not only by good judgement of your own actions, but also by the good anticipations of others.
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The Laguna had originally been rated an albeit good 4 stars. Thhe judges had to concede though when Renault successully highlighted that the car couldn't possibly be dangerous as it spends most of its life on garage ramps.
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I have nothing useful to say here, except thatI would just like to echo others' comments in expressing my sympathy to Andy.
I'm sorry - words can't say any more.
HF
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Sorry about your friend, Andy.
On the assumption that prevention is better than cure, have you thought of getting some advanced driving instruction from the IAM or RoSPA? A trip to the skidpan might also be useful.
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Sorry to hear about your friend, Andy. My wife had a lucky escape lately sliding off an ungritted rural road, through 2 small trees and into a deep ditch. Luckily not a scratch thanks to the air bag and being in a big vehicle (jeep cherokee). The jeep was written off though. So I went through a similar process to you and ended up with a 2000 W plate Subaru Legacy saloon. Although only the poverty spec it has 4 airbags, seat belt pretensioners and ABS plus the best handling I've experienced of a car in it's class due to the 4 wheel drive and low slung engine. So hopefully less chance of getting in the accident in the first place. I also looked at MSN's US site for crash data, you can get much more detail than over here, assuming the car is on the US market.
Plus of course you get bullet-proof reliability.
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Like others I'm sorry to hear the news about your friends, it really does bring what is really important in life to the fore.
As for the cars, I don't know about the others but I'm currently looking at the 75. It has an NCap 4 star safety rating and would have scored 5 if the side impact air-bags were fitted as standard. Out of the five you've mentioned, I'd argue at it being the more solid car of the five.
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thanks for the response.
firstly on parkers online or the ncap official website you can see the review of each car they have done. at the top their is a front impact % and side impact %, they then calculate the star rating. the pedestran score doesn't count i don't think.
i have never driven fast or "on the edge" so a safer car will not influence me to drive more recklessly. but it will give me personal peace of mind.
on the car front, i,ve seen some shocking reviews of the laguna's reliability, which at first completly put me off, but then looking on the car by car breakdown there seems to of been recalls for most of them, so i'm still unsure on that front.
the megane i must admit will possibly have the same problems, and may be out of my price range.
the 75 sounds like a good option to me and from all accounts its a really nice car too.
vectra, well it was only a suggestion really.
finally the mondeo, if you look at the frontal crash test results they weren't to good (63%) which has at this point in time put me off.
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Andy,
My sympathy too, in the loss of your friend.
I would echo peterbs' comment re joining the IAM or RoSPA - without any doubt, the training will give you more security in your motoring than any change of vehicle is likely to give you.
Regards,
Matt35.
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i pride myself on being a good driver, i don't think that is the solution.
so any owners reports of the new laguna?
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