http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/12/2...-crash-rating/

w00t! Lets celebrate everyone!!

 

I'm up for celebration!.... how exactly do we celebrate this?

 

no idea... haha... does a high safety rating mean lower insurance?

 

i wish that would be great...insurance will probably overlook this

what is this SST ?

 

We can celebrate by having a 2011 Scion tC DESTRUCTION DERBY hosted in my back yard. EVERYONES INVITED :D!!!

 

Sweet! I'll bring the spray paint for our numbers!... And tissues for all of us 2011 owners who will be crying once there new car is destroyed lol

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russell11

no idea... haha... does a high safety rating mean lower insurance?

No…not always…but it does mean that you do have a much heavier car than it needs to be…and that is no cause for celebration. IMHO

 

I think the heavier weight in exchange for safety is a cause for celebration! Plust the way i think of it is, even if the insurance doesnt get lowered, you'd only save a couple of dollars a month. But atleast your driving a safe car :D!



Pic related, it's my 2011 Camry SE that rolled 5 times, and i had that picture taken the next morning!

the car was rated an average of 3 Stars for its class by the new 2011 safety standards. Even though you cant compare the tC and the Camry because of the weight difference, 5 stars definately is something to cheer about, even if it adds a couple hundred pounds!

 

OK…here is my thinking. You show a photo of a person (I’m going to assume that that was the driver) that walked away from a 3 star crash rated car that rolled over 5 times…why would I need 5 stars? Have you ever rolled a car? A lighter car is a better, faster responding car – a better performing car…physics 101. If that driver had a better performing car, would he have even gotten into that situation that got him into that accident in the first place? Just a point to ponder…

Now…had I been given the choice of choosing between a “safer car” (with 8 explosive devices inside the car! Air bags you know) or a car that gets 8 miles to the gallon better gas mileage, I’m choosing the 8-MPG more. That extra mass (about 1,000-lbs) that you have to haul around, I’d rather have the added performance…just me. I don’t know if anybody else shares my point of view, but there are compromises everywhere and this one was chosen by the government for me. I don’t like it. I don’t want it. That crash structure is worth about 1,000-lbs…

 

Oh that's me in the photo, I rolled it xD

But I get what you're saying, I personally like the safety alittle better only cause I rolled before. What would be cool is if there was safety with no compromise!

 

I see where 2tCornot2tC is going...

personally I see myself as a "smart/risky" driver....I feel like I can drive/weave with no problems and a pretty quick reaction time and so far have had 0 (knock-on-wood) accidents in all my years of driving. with that said...I feel much more comfortable with a car I can maneuver with quickly...that is how I avoid any accidents...thinking fast and moving fast

a heavier car will hinder the moving fast part somewhat

...so if your a caution driver paranoid of getting hit, then yay 5 stars
...if your a driver that believes you can get out of any jam quickly...then the 5 stars isn't as important as you lose out on weight/performance

 

Just about all cars these days are heavy; even 3-star cars and 5-star cars weigh similar amounts. It's less to do with weight and more to do with engineering and modernity. The tC is a brand-new car for 2011 whereas the Camry was new for 2007. The next Camry will almost definitely be safer than the outgoing model. Also, when comparing modern cars, a big, heavy car will be safer in a collision than a light one, and most any car with modern electronic aids (VSC, TRAC, ABS, EBD, Brake-assist) will perform well in accident-avoidance maneuvering irrespective of size and weight. The only caveat to that is if a car has a high center of gravity it may be prone to rolling over, but on pavement that's typically only a concern for SUVs and trucks.

 

I am all for letting nature take it's course. If you're dumb enough to smoke, drink & drive, not wear a seatbelt, or whatever, then we can just hope nature does it's job before you produce offspring.

That said, I don't know of anyone who thinks they are a below average driver, though statistically 50% of the drivers on the road are just that. Add in the facts that no matter how good a driver you are, things outside your control will happen, you will lose focus sometimes, you will make poor decisions, and you will get into an accident eventually.

If lightweight, speed, handling and manueverability really made that much difference, motorcycles wouldn't be so dangerous. The MSF has a course every new rider in Florida is required to take before riding on public roads. Even with that course, which is much more indepth than the BS driver's course you took at 16, motorcycle fatalities are huge.

I may not have the track experience some of you do, but I have years experience riding motorcycles, professional driver training in cars, SUVs, up-armored SUVs and combat vehicles. And as a "good" driver with quick reflexes, you don't get in accidents when you're alert and going. You get in accidents when you've been driving for hours, are tired, bored and ready to get where you're going. Further, aggressive driving on roadways with others who know how to drive is nothing like aggressive driving on roads with people who don't know or don't care about how to drive. A 20% weight reduction (or increase) may be a big deal on the track, but distributed evenly throughout the car, doesn't make a very big difference in real-world driving. 0-60 mph in 5.5 sec vs 6.5 sec is far less useful on the road than knowing to wait the extra 2 min for a bigger opening. Besides, a "good" driver can compensate for the extra weight safety features provide.

Okay, I'm getting off my soapbox now. I've just heard the "I could avoid accidents and getting hurt better if safety equipment didn't slow me down" so many times for so many things (cars, sports, combat, boating, you name it) and it's really a false sense of one's own abilities.

 

Ex: dump trucks >_>

BACK ON TOPIC! The super fun destruction derby is still on! lol

 

there are alot of accidents that are out of the driver's hand most of the time. You could be the safest driver, but all you need is one idiot, drunk, blind, driver and you might be caught in a roll over situation. i dont know waht defines a 3 star or a 5 star, all seems arbitrary to me, but i'm glad that on the other hand, the tC wasn't rated the worst poser--opps wrong rant-- unsafest car on the street.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by XerotC

there are alot of accidents that are out of the driver's hand most of the time.

This is where I disagree. I rode a motorcycle 18 years in the Los Angeles are. In California, motorcycles are allowed to split the traffic…go between the slow cars on the freeways. There is one thing that you learn very fast…that if there is an accident, it makes no difference whether it is your fault or the other driver’s fault, you will suffer the consequences. Since speed (time) is of the essence, you can drive 65-mph while everybody on the freeway is going 25-mph and not get a speeding ticket. You can, but then the officer must prove that you were not safe. It is much easier to get them or RADAR and collect the money.

To do this as safely as possible, you have to drive your bike and the 8 cars around you. You learn auto dynamic and learn to read the attitude of the car and be able to predict what the car is going to do without ever seeing the driver. I only know a handful of bikers that are capable of that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MightyP

If lightweight, speed, handling and manueverability really made that much difference, motorcycles wouldn't be so dangerous.

You have overlooked only one minor thing…now think about it. If that was true, then motorcycles would be the fastest things on the race track too, but they are not. The problem with motorcycles is that they only have two wheels. You need the contact patch to react the lateral forces through and motorcycles don’t have that. Good try though.

 

Holy cow, my dad says the same thing about reading cars ._. I can kinda do it, cause you kinda have to because drivers here suck.

And I think MightyP was referring to real world driving

I think we should all get back on the topic before this gets too heated!

 

^ Glad someone understood what I was saying. And I don't get upset or have long debates on forums. No point.

 

seems whatever thread he posts in gets into some sort of debate

 

Well it's good to know that when I'm not riding my deathtrap motorcycles, my scion cage will protect me so well.

What would make the roads safer is if more folks had to confront the dangerous reality of motorcycling. The road survival skills I've learned from riding, and the classes I've taken, have made me a better driver. Cars lie to people, they tell us that we are safe and well protected, while the bike is honest and tells us that we are quite mortal and probably driving too fast.

Of course, I'd like to have the performance advantages of having my tc be lighter, too.