Young People driving Huge Cars (Austin, West: buy, dangerous, safety)

[10scoachrick]

[quote=hilsmom;16440710] IMAGINE how much fun I had driving my grandma's Mercury Grand Marquis for a couple days while we were visiting!
/quote]


Ah, yes! The Grand Ma...official car of Florida!

[hilsmom]

[quote=10scoachrick;16440756]

Originally Posted by hilsmom

IMAGINE how much fun I had driving my grandma's Mercury Grand Marquis for a couple days while we were visiting!
/quote]


Ah, yes! The Grand Ma...official car of Florida!

haha - cute. It wasn't FL, just for the record. But she does live in a retirement community. My parents tell me she doesn't actually drive the thing, but she refuses to get rid of it. It is definitely NOT a car for a 33 year old woman!

[centralaustinite]

Big cars and SUVs tend to have BIG blind spots! I love my Honda Odyssey and it handles great but an Expedition can hide in its blind spot!

I've been in numerous fender benders, most in parking lots at slow speeds, all with vehicles as big or bigger, most of the time neither of us saw the other car! Its crazy.

I intend to get my teens Smart cars! Easy to park and maneuver and with only enough room for ONE other friend. The most dangerous thing in a car driven by a young driver are other teenagers!

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Big cars and SUVs tend to have BIG blind spots! I love my Honda Odyssey and it handles great but an Expedition can hide in its blind spot!

I've been in numerous fender benders, most in parking lots at slow speeds, all with vehicles as big or bigger, most of the time neither of us saw the other car! Its crazy.

I intend to get my teens Smart cars! Easy to park and maneuver and with only enough room for ONE other friend. The most dangerous thing in a car driven by a young driver are other teenagers!

I kindly suggest you avoid Smart cars. They are expensive, need premium fuel, are dangerously slow, and the safety ratings are mediocre. If you want a small car, buy a Honda Fit or Ford Fiesta. Better and safer. The Smart isn't especially economical either. Tiny cars are also invisible to many others on the road.

[G Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

I kindly suggest you avoid Smart cars. They are expensive, need premium fuel, are dangerously slow, and the safety ratings are mediocre. If you want a small car, buy a Honda Fit or Ford Fiesta. Better and safer. The Smart isn't especially economical either. Tiny cars are also invisible to many others on the road.

I would second this, not because I have ever driven one, but because Consumer Reports has graded it poorly just for the reasons Hoffdano states. If I were ready to buy a car at this point, I would really be looking at the Honda Fit.

[skeet09]

Originally Posted by hilsmom

This is a hot button for me - I depise SUVs.

Anyway, yes, they are generally making our roads more unsafe for a multitude of reasons. And yes, teen drivers are less safe than others, so why give them a large vehicle that is even harder to control?

Couldn't rep you enough for this! I can't stand them either especially if its just one person driving it all the time,never using it for its intended purpose Gotta maximize its use!

Originally Posted by hoffdano

Vehicle size of course matters. Not just the width, but the turning circle. New drivers also tend to not know where the corners of their vehicle are.

I've seen this in tons of parking lots. The teens can't figure out how to park an SUV, let alone a regular car! I may cut the teens a break, they are learning after all but when its an adult, .

Originally Posted by 1mintjulep

They'll pull out in front of me and cut me off, I'm assuming just because they figure they're bigger than me and can just plow over me if I don't get out of the way.

I'll never have any use for one of those things, and I can't imagine driving one. Took me long enough to get used to a Nissan Maxima after driving a compact for so many years. I'd have an SUV wrapped around a telephone pole the first time I drove it.

I have Nissan Sentra; love it! I find it roomy enough for and for my needs!

OP: Yes young folks driving large cars may be an even more of a recipe for accidents than a small car, I suppose. Maybe there's research on this from the insurance companies on this?

[thesonofgray]

I went to high school with a girl whose first car was a shiny new red Mustang. She ran a red light, got t-boned, and totaled it. Her dad then bought her a shiny new red Dodge Ram. He had to protect daddy's little princess - all others be damned.

Anyways, I drive a 4x4 SUV. And gas mileage SUCKS. And I take up too much space in the parking lot. And people hate it that they can't see around me. Yada yada. But I'm on construction sites or off-road a lot for work so it is invaluable to me - no car would work. But I do generally agree that seeing all the Suburbans or Tahoes or - gasp! - Hummers being driven by anyone (not just teens) does seem quite wasteful to me. If I didn't need high clearance and 4-wheel drive, I'd probably be driving a sweet Audi A4 or BMW 3 series. Droooool....

What strikes me is how the difference in sizes of vehicles is growing. It used to be that everything was simply getting bigger, but recently super-small is also cool - Mini Cooper, Smart Car, Golf, Yaris, etc. So now we have ginormous 5,000 lb Hummers going 60 mph on a freeway next to itty bitty 1,600 lb Smart Cars. The difference between the two is dangerous. If we were all driving Hummers or all driving Smart Cars, safety wouldn't be as big an issue.

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by thesonofgray

I went to high school with a girl whose first car was a shiny new red Mustang. She ran a red light, got t-boned, and totaled it. Her dad then bought her a shiny new red Dodge Ram. He had to protect daddy's little princess - all others be damned.

Anyways, I drive a 4x4 SUV. And gas mileage SUCKS. And I take up too much space in the parking lot. And people hate it that they can't see around me. Yada yada. But I'm on construction sites or off-road a lot for work so it is invaluable to me - no car would work. But I do generally agree that seeing all the Suburbans or Tahoes or - gasp! - Hummers being driven by anyone (not just teens) does seem quite wasteful to me. If I didn't need high clearance and 4-wheel drive, I'd probably be driving a sweet Audi A4 or BMW 3 series. Droooool....

What strikes me is how the difference in sizes of vehicles is growing. It used to be that everything was simply getting bigger, but recently super-small is also cool - Mini Cooper, Smart Car, Golf, Yaris, etc. So now we have ginormous 5,000 lb Hummers going 60 mph on a freeway next to itty bitty 1,600 lb Smart Cars. The difference between the two is dangerous. If we were all driving Hummers or all driving Smart Cars, safety wouldn't be as big an issue.

Which partially explains why there are 13 European countries with lower death rates per billion KM traveled than the U.S. All of those countries have cars that are on average smaller than the U.S. and along with that a smaller discrepancy between the smallest and the largest:

List of countries by traffic-related death rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[eepstein]

To put it very bluntly, with the exception of towing and going offroad, Minivans are, and always will be superior to large SUV's. They do everything better and more efficiently. Putting your kids into a large SUV is like a death trap. Those things are so likely to tip over because they can't handle worth a crap. In my opinion, only stupid people buy large SUV's. If you need to tow and go off road with your family, get a fricken 4 door pickup truck. geeeez. SUV's, truly the most pointless, worthless vehicles on the road. And small SUV's??? Most of those have less overall room than a full size sedan!! And ****ty gas mileage and handling plus 5-10 grand more!!

Im always amazed how brainwashed people are. Are they SO stupid and arrogant?. A Toyota Sequioa is a Toyota Tundra with a back on it (and 15 grand more) A Ford Expedition is a Ford 150 with a back on it (and 15-20 grand more)
A Nissan Armada is a Nissan Titan with a back on it (and 10-15 grand more) A Chevy Tahoe/Suburban is a Silverado/Avalanche with a back on it. (and 15 grand more)

Ah, stupid people who like throwing their money away!! Well, not just in Austin....all over this country!!

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Big cars and SUVs tend to have BIG blind spots! I love my Honda Odyssey and it handles great but an Expedition can hide in its blind spot!

I've been in numerous fender benders, most in parking lots at slow speeds, all with vehicles as big or bigger, most of the time neither of us saw the other car! Its crazy.

I intend to get my teens Smart cars! Easy to park and maneuver and with only enough room for ONE other friend. The most dangerous thing in a car driven by a young driver are other teenagers!

[hilsmom]

Originally Posted by eepstein

To put it very bluntly, with the exception of towing and going offroad, Minivans are, and always will be superior to large SUV's. They do everything better and more efficiently. Putting your kids into a large SUV is like a death trap. Those things are so likely to tip over because they can't handle worth a crap. In my opinion, only stupid people buy large SUV's. If you need to tow and go off road with your family, get a fricken 4 door pickup truck. geeeez. SUV's, truly the most pointless, worthless vehicles on the road. And small SUV's??? Most of those have less overall room than a full size sedan!! And ****ty gas mileage and handling plus 5-10 grand more!!

Im always amazed how brainwashed people are. Are they SO stupid and arrogant?. A Toyota Sequioa is a Toyota Tundra with a back on it (and 15 grand more) A Ford Expedition is a Ford 150 with a back on it (and 15-20 grand more)
A Nissan Armada is a Nissan Titan with a back on it (and 10-15 grand more) A Chevy Tahoe/Suburban is a Silverado/Avalanche with a back on it. (and 15 grand more)

Ah, stupid people who like throwing their money away!! Well, not just in Austin....all over this country!!

Hey, get out of my head. That's just rude to steal others thoughts.