21st Dec 2006, 11:37

I finally stopped laughing long enough to add a comment in response to the statement about being safer in a Civic than a GMC. That is absolutely the most ludicrous statement I have ever read. One of my wealthy clients was hit head-on in his GMC Yukon by a group of teenagers in an Accord (which is bigger and heavier than a Civic). The driver and both passengers in the Accord were killed instantly. My client walked away without a scratch. As for a Jetta, they don't require being hit by a large vehicle to be totalled. They come that way from the factory.

21st Dec 2006, 11:41

ALL trucks and SUV's are more prone to roll overs than cars. The laws of physics work that way with top-heavy vehicles. However, roll-overs are by far the minority of acidents, most of which involve collisions. In that case ANY SUV or truck is ALWAYS safer than ANY car...PERIOD.

23rd Dec 2006, 18:07

I suppose the Civic and Corolla crowd will loudly proclaim that in a collision with a Hummer their cars will protect them better. Nothing like a good fairy tale I guess.

11th Feb 2007, 01:16

LMAO that was funny. I don't even care what the moral of that one was... but it was funny.

14th Mar 2007, 21:37

Today I was delayed on my way to work by an accident.

A 2004 Honda Civic had rear-ended a nearly new Silverado (same truck, basically as the Sierra). The fenders and hood of the Civic were demolished and driven nearly back to the windshield (which was broken). Both air bags had deployed. There was NO QUESTION the Civic was a TOTAL LOSS.

The Silverado was a totally different story. The rear bumper was not even dented or even knocked out of its original position. The tail lights weren't even cracked. In fact, had I not seen the totally squished Civic there would have been no way of even knowing the Silverado had been in an accident. I'll take a full size Ford or GM over a "disposable" tin can any day!!

15th Mar 2007, 19:47

How can that be, when the import fans constantly proclaim that the smaller Civic is so much safer than full size SUVs and pickup trucks? According to their logic, the Silverado should have been totalled, and the Civic driven away without a scratch (because we all know how smaller vehicles with less mass are so much stronger than larger, heavier vehicles). I can see it all now: "My Civic just totalled a Ford Excursion, and then I drove it through 30 feet of snow 400 miles to the race track and ran 11.20 in the quarter while getting 53 mpg!"

Oh well, I guess the poor little "peep" couldn't get out of the way of the "big bad Silverado" and won't be coming home to Gramma's house, anymore. How sad. At least after that piece of crap is scraped off the road, it will have a useful life in the junkyard for a family of rats.

29th Mar 2007, 20:41

I enjoyed reading the comments and I too smiled just like others have noted. Here are my two cents.

It's well known that SUV's and pick-up trucks have a higher center of gravity and a coincident tendency to roll versus a smaller vehicle like a Toyota "peep". Most SUV roll over occurrences resulting in fatalities are single vehicle accidents.

There are many cars like the Accord for example that have faired better than some larger vehicles like trucks at protecting their occupants. However these are controlled crashes into a fixed barrier or wall. Since the wall doesn’t move, it is the big equalizer against the larger vehicle’s force at impact. Physics.

Unfortunately, if a Civic hits a Silverado “head on” it won’t be a pretty sight for either vehicle or their occupants. Assuming the vehicles were approaching each other travelling at the same velocity, the bigger vehicle’s mass will impart a larger force to the smaller one as they collide.

There are other variables like how the structure of a vehicle is designed to absorb and distribute the collision forces away from the occupants, but everything being equal the deceleration force experienced by the smaller vehicle and its occupants will be far greater. Physics again.

At this point, lets thank the proliferation of air bags and hope they deployed as designed so that the occupants of both vehicles survived and were able to walk away. But if I were a driver of a small car with all the latest safety equipment, I still would not want to tempt fate with a “pig”.

Yes the environment pays a price and the owner of the big vehicle pays at the pump, but seeing the way more and more people drive their cars and trucks today, I can sort of understand why some drivers want as much iron as possible surrounding themselves and their family. No, not a law of physics, but just the basic desire for survival.