Cars are getting smaller - not a good thing

[5129frederick]

About eight years ago I was involved in a serious accident where a tractor towing a 40' trailer came straight out of a side road at a 45 angle onto a single lane carriageway and slammed brakes when he saw me.  The long and the short of it was five seconds later I was on travel news and even made it into the newspapers, my fifteen minutes of fame unsought (roll eyes).  Even at a 35 m.p.h. impact speed (down from 50 m.p.h.) seat belt or not, you know you're gonna get hurt.  I was driving a Ford Sierra at the time, where I was trapped in the car for forty minutes.  Police told me later had I been driving a smaller car I'd never have made it, and they were right!  This point was brought home to me when I had to go to a car breakers yard looking for a spare part.  There I saw car after car after virtually disintigrated by frontal impact damage - it made my stomach churn.  Modern cars are just too small  there's virtually no room in the boot for suitcases or anything else for when you go on holiday.  Apart from the BMW and Range Rover, where are the solid cars like the Austin Ambassador - I had two.  The Vauxhall Cavalier, the Carlton (lovely car) the Volvo - my present car, or even the larger model Skoda Octavia.  Vehicles that will not break up on impact.  Yon't need speed - 60 m.p.h. is fast enough for anybody unless you're in a mad rush.  Today's car might have air bags left, right and centre, but generally they are built too light with engines designed to take most of them to speeds of excess of 100 m.p.h.  Where's the Austin Cambridge with static as opposed to inertia seat belts?  I've never gone over 65 m.p.h. in my car - that's why it sailed through it's MoT three years in a row.  

[mr-expresso]

I understand some of your points.. but not the last about speed and passing an MOT...

I regularly drive fast... sometimes very fast..... and my car has sailed through its last three MOT's...

[chips-and-brown-gravy]

I drive a small, but very solidly built car, a Merc, with a top speed governed at 155. I don't get anywhere neat that but the acceleration has got me out of trouble from idiot drivers a few times - strangly enough either Golf or Volvo drivers.  It has room for two smallish suitcases, which is all you need unless you pack the kitchen sink or are going for more than a couple of weeks.

The Cavalier and the Carlton (had both) were rust buckets and although nice when new were heaps of junk after a very few years. My previous Merc was over 18 years old when I got rid of it and still very driveable and in not bad condition.  It never failed an MOT, wasn't particularly well looked after and very often went over 65 miles an hour in fact it spent most of it's like cruising on motorways at 70-80, so I don't really think you can generalise.

Vehicles these days are meant to break up on impact - it absorbs the impact better - just look at F1 cars they shatter almost, but like modern cars have a reinforced passenger safety cage - when was the last person killed or really seriously injured in F1 at speeds well in excess of 100 mph?

It's not the cars that are at fault IMHO it's the drivers.

[electric*mayhem*band]

'there's virtually no room in the boot for suitcases or anything else for when you go on holiday'

I've heard of people cramming dead bodies in there, so for some folk it's adequate enough.

[rose2008-2008]

Be a good idea if they got so small they dissapeared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Bring back Horses and Carriages!!!!!!!!!!!!.

[chips-and-brown-gravy]

Oh right - back to the dark ages and up to your neck in horse dung by next weekend 🙂

[cee-dee]

Mmmmmm yes, cobble the streets too and then complain about the noise the carriages make with their iron tyres not to mention the noise of the horse shoes.

Have you ever tried to shovel that horse stuff off cobbles?

[electric*mayhem*band]

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@chips-and-brown-gravy wrote:

Oh right - back to the dark ages and up to your neck in horse dung by next weekend 🙂

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Dark Ages ? I understand Saffron Walden council are looking for a lamp lighter. (Must have own bicycle).

[chips-and-brown-gravy]

Doesn't suprise me

[5129frederick]

The stuff makes a strange noise too - it sounds like a bell - DUNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG 

[sir_arthur_strebe-grebling]

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@5129frederick wrote:

About eight years ago I was involved in a serious accident where a tractor towing a 40' trailer came straight out of a side road at a 45 angle onto a single lane carriageway and slammed brakes when he saw me.  The long and the short of it was five seconds later I was on travel news and even made it into the newspapers, my fifteen minutes of fame unsought (roll eyes).  Even at a 35 m.p.h. impact speed (down from 50 m.p.h.) seat belt or not, you know you're gonna get hurt.  I was driving a Ford Sierra at the time, where I was trapped in the car for forty minutes.  Police told me later had I been driving a smaller car I'd never have made it, and they were right!  This point was brought home to me when I had to go to a car breakers yard looking for a spare part.  There I saw car after car after virtually disintigrated by frontal impact damage - it made my stomach churn.  Modern cars are just too small  there's virtually no room in the boot for suitcases or anything else for when you go on holiday.  Apart from the BMW and Range Rover, where are the solid cars like the Austin Ambassador - I had two.  The Vauxhall Cavalier, the Carlton (lovely car) the Volvo - my present car, or even the larger model Skoda Octavia.  Vehicles that will not break up on impact.  Yon't need speed - 60 m.p.h. is fast enough for anybody unless you're in a mad rush.  Today's car might have air bags left, right and centre, but generally they are built too light with engines designed to take most of them to speeds of excess of 100 m.p.h.  Where's the Austin Cambridge with static as opposed to inertia seat belts?  I've never gone over 65 m.p.h. in my car - that's why it sailed through it's MoT three years in a row.  

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Yes, it's basic physics that Newton knew about.

My experience, just over eight years ago, was when I, in my Subaru Forester, was hit head-on by a youngster coming round a bend on my side of the road, in a classic boy-racer vehicle, a yellow Peugeot 205. I was doing 40 mph (the limit on that road) before braking; he was probably going faster so the combined-speed impact was considerable.

I got away with a broken sternum (from the seat-belt); he had two broken legs, two broken arms and a fractured skull.

The firefighters had to cut his car to pieces to get him out; with mine, they opened the driver's door and lifted me out. The 'passenger cell' was intact and my legs weren't damaged. You could read the seat-belt maker's name in my bruises but without it I would have been dead.

When I got out of hospital and felt like driving again, you won't be surprised to hear that I replaced my written-off Subaru Forester with another Subaru Forester.

[papko]

Cars are made of metal , metal is getting more expensive , Manuafactureres are fighting tighter margins 

 If you want a full metal car , like an old Swedish or German one , they you will be dealing with a big hulking beast which will drink fuel .

 Cars are made lighter now as well to maximise fuel economy , Aluminium is more expensive than steel .

 I do notiuce around here , that people make fewer journeys and tend to stick homebound , just to dear to move about , must be a real pain if you have to travel far to get a fixed income .

[mini_ok]

I drive a huge thirsty Mitsibushi L200 , after being hit head on by a drunk Polish bloke driving a transit van, I feel more secure now than when I had a flimsy little connect van. He fled back to Poland before he went to court. Big is better

[5129frederick]

The cars of today are far too light and fast on the acceleration.  You talk  about fuel economy, but it's 99.99% dependent on how you drive it,  I can slam mine into gear and spin the wheels wearing out my tyres any time I want, but what's the point if forty feet from the crossroads the lights are almost guaranteed to turn red?  It's all down to reading the road.  If the lights are green 100 yards from you, slow down.  Nobody does though, so they all have to brake at the last moment.  A lot of the traffic lights have built-in speed monitors which are able to determine whether anybody's speeding, and flick it across to red.  I'm quite happy about my economy.  On a run I'll get about 35 miles to the gallon.  About town, rather less.  

The other thing that gets me is how other road users dogmatically refuse to let anybody out of a side road - totally pointless.  If every fifth car let just one person out, there'd be no queue, and how long does it take: four seconds?  Or even more ignorant - if you see a man trying to turn right across you path, let him!  There will invariably be a string of cars behind him, all stuck because there's no room for them to get past.  It's not even courtesy - it's just straight common sense.