Quote:
Originally Posted by 1stE53
I wouldn't trade. The safety of for one. My wife and two children use the X 90+% of the time. The smaller cars may pass crash tests because of the cabin structure is rigid, but with the larger and heavier vehicle, more of the impact is dispersed thoughout the vehicle and not the passenger. ie. the crash test done between an old 90s S class Merc and the new Smart Car. The passenger cell was not crushed after the impact but the people would have surely died due to the force of the impact transfered to their bodies.
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Crash test results consider both the integrity of the passenger compartment, and the maximum forces applied to the crash test dummies. You need both to be good to survive, or to receive a good score.
There are lots of factors involved in crash statistics, but a couple of comments:
Vehicle weight really only matters in a head on collision with another vehicle. In that case, it helps to be in the larger vehicle because you are more likely to kill the other vehicle occupants than die yourself. Those other bodies are your shock absorber. In a single vehicle accident vehicle weight doesn't matter, there is more mass and thus more kinetic energy to dissipate. If you hit a wall, a SMART car is as good as the S Class. If they hit each other, the S Class is safer, but not as safe as a Kenworth would be, taken to an extreme.
If you want to be really safe, mini vans and four door sedans have better histories than SUVs, simply because SUVs are more likely to roll over. In one study, with four door sedans and mid size SUVs of the same weight, occupants were nine times more likely to die in the SUV, simply because of the roll over risk. Also, the SUV was more likely to kill occupants of the other vehicle because it was higher. We can argue over whether the X is typical of all mid-size SUVs, but if we accept that BMWs have good handling and are thus better off than vehicles like Jeeps, we still are left with the conclusion that a 5 series is safer than an X5 in terms of handling.
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2007 X3 3.0si, 6 MT, Premium, White
Retired:
2008 535i, 6 MT, M Sport, Premium, Space Grey
2003 X5 3.0 Steptronic, Premium, Titanium Silver
2002 325xi 5 MT, Steel Grey
2004 Z4 3.0 Premium, Sport, SMG, Maldives Blue
Last edited by JCL; 09-28-2011 at 07:49 PM.
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