sddykstr

Kind of a random list put together by them, but I'm not too worried.

dencio83

Wish we can see the quarter front impact and side impact for the tC...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=C_fN6YK40WI

and your friend

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eJhtbGRGPRQ

imagin

Most cars today get between 4-5 stars for side impact. 4 stars is the average today. And they mark the car down.... that makes no sense to me at all

dencio83

Wish we can see the quarter front impact and side impact for the tC...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=C_fN6YK40WI

and your friend

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eJhtbGRGPRQ

SoccerBoy_AP

Well forbes can bite me!!!

thespottedcow

Im going to gowith my experience of hitting a tree at 90 and walking out without a scratch to feel safe in my car rather than crash test ratings..

MVPlaya

Why is the Z not on that list?

jovan_gonzales

Doesn't the tC have a 5 star rating on everything except the side and then it goes up to 5 with the air bags. What lame-o's. They're just jealous. Anyways, tCs are super safe, I mean, they ARE Toyotas. And hey, at least we're not #1, hahaha.

bBlover

Wow, isn't Forbes like a rich person magazine or something? Is the xB on that list?? If not, there's a problem. How can you justify if a car's safe or not by having SABs?? Unacceptable 4?? Wow 4 out of 5. That's soo unacceptable. Ok, what convertible do you know of that has side airbags? None?

06CStC

Ah, I was planning to the side air bag option with the car, but couldnt due to time constraints. Still, i feel the car is pretty safe. A friend of mine rolled his tC with 4 ppl inside, and the body held up pretty well, as all 4 survived.

engifineer

- I know of as many people injured by their airbags going off at the wrong time as I do people "saved" by them

-Airbags help to keep you from slamming into something. They dont keep the car from crushing into you. You can have all the side airbags you want, if a dump truck crushes the side of the car in, that initial bump will be less due to the airbag... then the door will wrap around you and mangle you anyway.

-I have been in 2 VERY serious wrecks (t boned by a guy doing 95 and flipping a car end over end) with NO airbags in the car and walked away with little more than a scratch.

Does this mean airbags are a bad thing? No. Does it mean they wont help to protect you? No. Does it mean that they may not be THE safety feature of the year? Yes. Does it mean that they really only protect you from rapid deceleration injury (AKA slamming into the wheel or pillar)? Yes.

When I think of safety of the car itself, I think of structural stability, which the tC has shown to be very good for. If THE safety feature is the airbags alone, a lot of people are sorely misled about how safe thier cars are. I would rather have a solidly built car with proper crumple zones than 5 million airbags.

Again, a biased magazine that is looking at one aspect of safety as the number one thing. Just like ABS... I can drive just as safely without it, and have most of my life in the cars I had without it. It is a matter of knowing what you are doing. However, now people have grown up with ABS, so it is a necessity for many, since they wouldnt know what to do without it. So while it makes some people safer, it is nothing big to someone who has learned to drive without it thier whole life. So what is "safer" for some is just an annoyance to others.

ABS, TRAC, VSC and even airbags (to an extent anyway) have served to create a false sense of security for a lot of people, who have forgotten all about how a car is actually put together, which in the end, is the biggest safety element of all. One good example is this. Get a car sideways at highway speeds with VSC, TRAC and ABS involved. I will straighten the car up a LOT quicker if those items are not in the mix than with them. Being sideways, sliding and not being able to spin the wheels because of an eletronic system interfering will just worsen the spin. This is the very reason I am getting ready to mod our 4runner to add a disable circuit for the VSC. At least when I am driving it I want to be the one in control

superemu

My co-worker was t-boned and now he is brain dead. his car didnt' have side-airbags. maybe if he had side air-bags it might of saved him, it might not. but we'll never know now.
take every saftey precaution you can afford to. you don't want to leave your life to chances.

we shouldn't be too scared since our side impact is 4 stars and front impact is 5 stars.

Vlad1024

My title sais that I own a "2008 toyota sci 2 door"

Anyway this artical is basicaly saying that all small cars are death traps. I competly dissagree. I feel very safe in my tc.

Ace83

iTrader: (6)

^^ agree. and what? SUVs, vans or big vehicles are safer? bigger doesnt mean safer they are more prone to roll overs..

shadow12one

This also reminds me of all the soccer mom SUV drivers during the winter. Just because their SUV has AWD doesnt make them any less prone to the slipperyness of the roads. It just means they are a little bit more able to better handle the weather but you still see them going 50 mph because of that false sense of comfort. Sure they might be fine driving, but the car has to stop sometime. AWD doesnt do anything to help an SUV stop.

Vlad1024

^I agree. Even the safest car can be a deathtrap in the hands of a bad driver.

pudgy1

^^ i totally agree on that. of course with the new '08's with standard side airbags, i think Forbes would reconsider their decision. Even if what they say is true, i think ill be alright, i got all 8 aribags that are optional for the '06 tc (front, front curtain, rear curtain, and sides)

Vlad1024

The newer tCs also have knee airbags

memoire

^^ so do the "older" ones (driver side).

Also, maybe the scale should be 10 stars. 4 out of 5 is all but one - but it's still only 80%. In some classes, the teacher would give you a C for that.

Or, maybe they realize that their journalistic opinion should be considered, but isn't a truly decisive or meaningful representation. If they realize it... I guess there's no reason to get all huffy about it. After all, any scale that increments by 20% can't be very 'scientific'.

pmarlowe

sometimes airbags can kill you. specially when they go off on a time you dont need em'.