Had my first real workout of the ABS today. I'm driving along, and ahead of me on the sidewalk is a kid on a bicycle. He looks like maybe he's going to cross the street (a busy street, 2 lanes in each direction, lots of traffic) so I take my foot off the gas and put it above the brake pedal in case I need it.

Then, I see that in the oncoming traffic is a guy that is whipping around for a u turn. Ok, that shouldn't be a problem since I'm in the far right lane.

Sure enough the kid comes across, but I'm still back far enough that he can make it across without me having to slam on the breaks.

But the guy making the u-turn doesn't see the kid - the kid comes to a quick stop to keep from getting hit by the turning car, and now he's right in front of me.

I gave it every bit of brake I can - there is a serious grinding sensation from the pedal that I'm not used to since this is my first ABS car (although I've driven rentals with it so I knew what to expect). The seatbelts tighten, the car leans forward pretty hard... and in the space of about 15 feet I darn near completely stop from about 40 MPH. The kid has time to get out of the way, and of course he doesn't thank me for saving his life or anything...

Maybe next time he'll think twice about playing in traffic...

I was glad the tC has 4 wheel discs and ABS, although I wasn't specifically looking for a car that had them. I think I will insist on having them in all cars I own from now on...

Now if I could just be sure the car behind me has ABS too. There wasn't time to worry about that until I started going again.

 

I would've given him a long honk until he was out of my sight while I hung out the window screaming obsceneties.

 

I probably shoulda, but the whole thing happened too fast. There were kids all over the place and a couple cops hanging out just another hundred yards or so up the road. Had too much going on just avoiding damage.

It was wierd. Middle school or elementary school (whatever age they were I'm not for sure) must have had a half day or something.

 

Forgot to mention - there were a bunch of kids on the sidewalk on the right side of the road, and this happened at a point on the road where the road turned to the left - had I just plowed straight forward without ABS I could have hit the lot of them...

 

I had a close call also one time, I was traveling up a slight hill and just as I was about to go over the crest, someone cuts in front of me, and then all of a sudden jams on his breaks as he looks over the top and sees traffic piling up. I was about 20 feet away from him when he cut me off, and by the time I came to a dead stop, I was about a foot and a half.

It was only like the second week I owned the tC... scared the crap out of me.

 

i got a good one, i had just finished turning through an intersection when this lady no more than 6 feet in front of me slams on her brakes leaves her car idling in the middle of a 2 lane road with lots of traffic and runs inside some building, i didnt have to slam hard or anything, but i thought it was just pretty damn funny how stupid people are. -Matt

 

It's a wonder how some cars (civics, corollas) can still have drum brakes on the rears...I mean ____, Jaguar came out with disk brakes like, at least 50 years ago! How much more can it cost to have disk brakes on a car compared to drums???

 

 

Most of the braking force is done by the brakes in the front of the car. While there is an advantage to using rear discs, it is not as great as some people are lead to believe. Some people who autocross prefer the weight savings of rear drum brakes over the slightly increased stopping power of discs.

 

The brakes saved me as well. I was driving 60 mph on a highway (I usually drive a little faster), in the left lane, when all of a sudden the car in front of me broke bcs of the guy in front of him who went to a dead stop. I just slammed the breaks. I stopped about 3 inches away from him. The guy who was going behind me swerved onto the shoulder, so its a good thing that I trusted my car and its brakes or me and the guy behind me would've collided. I think my heart skipped a beat.