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Accelerated

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Harut
Harut

Sip, qez hastat khapel em. yes vor avto ara, het@ 2 hat aghjik ekav.

Sip
Sip

Yah! Hungry Valley.

nairi
nairi

Since I passed my driving test today in a Volkswagen, I feel that I now have the right to join this thread

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ED Newbie

ED

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de dzez tesnem 2 x 2 =4 im b-deynela hents et or@ ba indz inch es qrnum??????

 

lav lav eli mi, entamen@ mi rish jermuk e uzats

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Accelerated Newbie

Accelerated

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Deposit down on MY08 WRX Sti! The percieved ugliness of the new model meant there was a runout on MY07 stock and no discounts. I wasnt going to pay full retail for a car that has been superseeded. Anyhow I went the launch to see the new Rex in the flesh and it doesnt look bad. There is a lot of potential for the Sti to look tough with pumped guards, rear wing etc. Anyhow I test drove half a dozen cars before I made the decision, none were as good as the MY07 Sti, and Im hoping the MY08 will be even better. Cars driven:

 

Subaru WRX Sti (MY07)

Mitsubishi Evolution IX

Mazda RX-8

Mazda 3 MPS

Honda Civic Type R (Euro version)

VW Golf Gti (DSG)

VW Golf R32

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MosJan Mentor

MosJan

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Top 20 Most Dangerous Vehicles

by Bengt Halvorson

Monday, July 30, 2007

 

For example, the Nissan 350Z has a death rate that's about double that of the average sports car.

 

But it's not for the reasons you might think. In this case, says Russ Rader, communications director for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), an organization that represents the interests of the insurance industry, the 350Z is part of a group of vehicles that tends to be driven by younger, less experienced or riskier drivers, and stands out for having high death rates, through no particular fault of the car.

 

"When they are in crashes," he adds, "they're particularly serious ones."

 

This illustrates a key point: Simply looking at the historical death rates for one particular model might not give much insight into the relative danger, or safety, of driving that vehicle. Furthermore, the most recent available federal data, interpreted by make and model by the IIHS, covers 2001 to 2004 model years in calendar years 2002 to 2005. Many models have had significant changes in safety equipment or complete redesigns since then.

 

 

 

The consensus among several safety experts we asked is that the best way to predict how dangerous or safe a new vehicle will be comes from looking at the way it's configured, particularly with respect to several important factors--side-impact protection, stability control and rollover risk--that together span a wide range in real-world safety.

 

That's what we did. Topping the list of the least safe: the Buick Rendezvous, the Ford Ranger/Mazda B-Series, the Nissan Frontier, the Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner and the Toyota Yaris.

 

High-Priority Protection

 

Among the various crash tests the IIHS performs on new vehicles, according to Rader, they see the widest range of results in those with side-impact and rear whiplash protection.

 

"What makes a vehicle unsafe today is a lack of side-impact protection," he says. "Whiplash is not a life-threatening injury but head injuries [from a side impact] are commonly life-threatening."

 

Side-curtain airbags have been shown to greatly increase the chances of surviving a classic "T-bone" side-impact accident, such as when the other vehicle runs a stoplight, and depending on the design, they can also increase the chances of surviving a rollover. Side-curtain bags are mandated for all 2009 vehicles, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that these alone will reduce fatal side-impact head injuries by 45%, saving up to 1,000 lives per year.

 

"Side airbags designed to protect your head are crucial, because a head injury is the most common fatal injury in a crash," says Rader. "It's the difference between life and death."

 

Structurally Sound

 

Along with side airbags, a vehicle also needs a well-built side structure to withstand a strong blow from vehicles of varying heights, says Rader.

 

Which leads to another major point: "Size and weight are very important aspects of safety," he says. "The laws of physics always apply in a crash. That means that people in smaller and lighter vehicles are always at a disadvantage in crashes with other vehicles."

 

In single-vehicle crashes, the weight advantage isn't as pronounced, but the statistics still point in favor of larger, if not heavier vehicles, he says.

 

However, John Linkov, managing editor of Consumer Reports, says that smaller and lighter vehicles aren't necessarily more dangerous. In many cases, they may offer handling and maneuverability advantages to help avoid accidents.

 

Even though stability control was only offered in some of the more expensive sport-utility vehicles a few years ago, Rader says that its impact is already easily seen in the Institute's yearly list of vehicles with the lowest death rates. Rader said that in the past, only a few of them were SUVs, but now they make up nearly half of the list.

 

Terrifying Trucks

 

Pickups are another surprisingly unsafe group of vehicles. Based on fatality-rate data, they're by far the most dangerous, says Michael Dulberger, president of the safety advocacy group Informed for Life.

 

"Pickups as a class have the highest rate of fatality and serious injury," he says, "and they have a very high rollover risk."

 

Rader agrees. "Pickups have a rollover problem," he says. "They have a high center of gravity and a high propensity to roll over." And making matters worse, "They're the laggards in electronic-stability control," he says.

 

Last year, only one pickup model offered electronic stability control, according to Rader, while this year it's standard on 8% of models and optional on 20%. By comparison, 87% of sport-utility vehicles now have standard stability control, according to the Institute.

 

Linkov agrees that some pickups pose the most danger to inexperienced drivers. "What we're seeing is that young people in places where pickups are a de facto choice are at an especially strong risk, with their propensity to roll over," he says.

 

Any vehicle can be especially unsafe if it's used in a way it's not designed for, such as if a high-clearance pickup is used primarily empty on curvy, hilly roads, according to Linkov.

 

"Combine that with a poorly trained driver," he says, "and it's dangerous."

 

The Methodology

 

As we've outlined, generalized fatality statistics point toward today's most dangerous new vehicles as those that are light, don't provide proper side- impact protection (airbags), have a higher propensity to roll over, don't handle particularly well and lack electronic-stability control.

 

Informed for Life releases SCORE (Statistical Combination of Risk Elements) data each year, which combine all the available safety data from the federal government and the IIHS, along with the role of weight and the presence of stability control, into a single number for each particular model, making it easier to compare vehicles of varying sizes or body types.

 

The SCORE is calculated according to the role that each element plays in general fatal accidents. For instance, as about 26% of national accident fatalities occur in a side impact, 26% of the SCORE depends on the vehicle's rated side-impact protection.

 

The system, which has been implemented for about five years, more closely matches the fatality rate on a model-by-model basis than either IIHS or NHTSA ratings alone. And it's easy to decipher; it's on a scale that's proportional to risk, with the average passenger car ranked 100.

 

So, for instance, a SCORE of 150 means that the relative risk of driver fatality is 50% higher than for the average passenger car. In the group's 2007 list, the most dangerous vehicle, the Buick Rendezvous, at 161, has more than three times the relative risk of fatality than the Hyundai Entourage and Kia Sedona minivans, at 51.

 

To distill our list of the most dangerous vehicles, we looked at Informed for Life's bottom-of-the-heap results for 2007 model-year vehicles, including vehicles with a full range of crash-test results from NHTSA, the IIHS, or a combination of the two; and to also consider the role of accident avoidance (or lack thereof), we broke any ties with Consumer Reports' accident avoidance scores.

 

CR first measures the vehicle's maximum stable speed through emergency handling, essentially simulating a quick swerve around an obstacle and back into the right lane, then factors in driving position, visibility and seat comfort--all issues that the organization deems important in successfully avoiding an accident.

 

We're aware that this is a snapshot of the most dangerous cars among those that have been extensively tested, and that there may be more dangerous vehicles that either haven't yet been fully crash-tested or were only partially tested. Please consult www.safercar.gov or www.iihs.org if you're concerned about a particular model.

Copyrighted, Forbes.com. All rights reserved.

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Ashot Newbie

Ashot

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Being shown at the Clean Vehicle Technology Expo in Ontario, California is Hymotion's modified Prius that can hit up to 150MPG in city areas. By adding a 175 pound battery pack to the trunk of a Prius -- which fits conveniently under the floor panel -- and charging overnight using a regular power plug, owners will be able to drive for up to 50 miles on battery power alone: that's well over the average motorist's daily journey. It'll cost $9,500 including installation, but according to one of the staff at the show, half of that could be covered by rebates as part of a new electric cars bill soon to be before Congress. Onwards we go, tip toeing towards a petrol-free future.

 

 

http://transportation.engadget.com/2007/10...-claims-150mpg/

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