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Martin H. Eastburn Martin H. Eastburn is offline
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Default OT -- Small Cars Are Dangerous Cars - Fuel economy zealots cankill you

I remember the exact same rationale in 1985.

A lady engineer drove a monster tank of a Caddy.
It was the largest one made for people.

Other engineers drove sporty cars.

She got heck from them - but one after another 'others' were
in bad, bad crushing problems. She was T-Boned one day and
the other car was crushed. She needed paint and a little Bondo.

Larger mass wins. Battery cars - lead acid types are death unto
the other cars.

Martin


Ignoramus14774 wrote:
On 2009-04-17, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
Title says it all. Actually tons of metal involved. But too little for
safety.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123993371229527975.html

This is a shot in the coming fight about CAFE.

The Wall Street Journal, 17 April 2009.


So they say that minis fare badly in collision with heavier cars.
That's understandable.

I am wondering about something? Does fuel efficiency of those tiny
cars come from then being small in dimensions, or light in weight?

I suspect that it is mostly the former, due to improved wind
resistance and such.

If so, perhaps the tiny economy cars could be made heavier, but kept
to the same dimensions? Such as, perhaps, the frame could be made from
solid steel instead of tubing.