Now is a smart a viable choice...

1988RedT2 wrote: Even with superlative safety engineering, it really does boil down to simple physics, and bigger is better.

For the same year, yes. How far back do you need to go before a large car is less safe than a new small car?

NO NO NO. A small car getting bounced Is NOT WORSE than a passenger cabin intrusion in a large car.

Look at the smart vs E class accident. It proves that a LARGER CAR IS NOT NECESSARILY SAFER THAN A SMALL CAR.

Now if you want to measure safety by in the crash which car moved the least, then yes, the larger vehicle wins. The measure of safety as accepted by rating organizations is injuries to the occupants car be damned.

That is not car size dependent that is engineering dependent.

Getting into a larger car for safety reasons is not a zero sum game. I personally hope that all of you buy your teenagers tiny cars so that when they run into me, i am less likely to die from it. Weight=safety, if you think about it, is basically an arms race. If everyone made it a top priority, the overall safety of everyone who wasn't participating in the arms race would be going down, down, down. It's a sort of indulgent paranoia where someone is perfectly willing to lower the safety of everyone else to increase their own on the assumption that THEY will not be the cause of the assumed eventual incident. Kind of like how some goofy people claim guns dont make people more dangerous when that is literally the entire damn point of being armed. The expense to others' safety is a necessary side effect of taking that approach to your own, and just that form of thinking makes those people more dangerous because of the choices it will lead them to make.

I've been driving for 16 years without ever injuring myself or anyone else in my entire driving existence. My end is taken care of. At this point my safety is basically up to everyone else. I would way rather other people give their children more driver training than just stick them in a vehicle that is safer for them and more dangerous to all their potential victims.

We have a 2012, get close to 50 MPG regularly, drive it about 18000 miles a year, and live a thousand feet up a mountain with a mile of dirt road. Car has been great--year round.

Be small and maneuverable, avoid the crash in the first place!

1988RedT2 wrote:

Tom Suddard wrote: Don't forget, Smarts are actually not super safe compared to, well, any larger car.

Thank you for posting that. I am always upset to hear about parents buying their new driver kids a tiny car. Even with superlative safety engineering, it really does boil down to simple physics, and bigger is better.

Better to give a driver that is statistically more likely to get into a major collision a vehicle that will do the most harm to other people?

I'm a very careful driver (no accidents in almost 30 years) and drive a Yukon XL. And am already teaching my 12 year old what safe driving is all about.

We all need to cover all our (and our kids') bases: teach them how to drive safely and how to avoid accidents and give them safe vehicles to drive.

Crappy drivers in big, safe cars are a real menace. Great drivers driving unsafe (poorly maintained or old enough to have very little saftey equipment) cars put themselves and others at undue risk.

Bottom line: car safely is a multifaceted process and no spoke of the wheel can be ignored.

ebonyandivory wrote: We all need to cover all our (and our kids') bases: teach them how to drive safely and how to avoid accidents and give them safe vehicles to drive. Bottom line: car safely is a multifaceted process and no spoke of the wheel can be ignored.

I agree 100%. However it irks me when people say things like "I don't trust my driving so I bought a big truck so I can feel safe." That's a polite way of saying "I'd rather be a threat to everyone on the road than learn to drive."