Re: Who does NOT agree that Honda should fire their designers


In article <Xns96BDE1E05EBC5tegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "TeGGeR®" <tegger@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> jim beam <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in news:2-
> 2dnZ2dnZ20k2DenZ2dneDqk96dnZ2dRVn-z52dnZ0@xxxxxxxxxxxxx:
> >
> > you ever been to a junk yard to look at the wrecks?

Yes, and I used to work in a tow shop. Some models withstand a lot
more than others, and Volvo as a brand tends to have such models.

> > volvo are nothing special. "safety" is just their marketing schtik.

More structural strength around the passenger compartment is more
structural strength. In many situations, it won't do you a bit of
good, true; but in side impacts, for example, it's damn nice to
have. And Volvos do have more structural strength than the average
vehicle.

As far as personal injury goes, what matters is the work done on
some tissue relative to the rest of the body. (When the entire
body is accelerated uniformly, there's no injury, obviously.) An
accident may involve so much acceleration that the safety restraints
cause a fatal degree of tissue compression and hydrostatic shock;
in that case, structural strength of the cabin doesn't help and may
even hinder survival (since the cabin absorbs less of the energy).
However, many accident injuries are the result of penetrations into
the cabin encountering tissue, and either fatally compressing or
dividing it; in those cases, structural strength does reduce chance
of serious injury.

Contemporary Volvos built on the same platform as some Ford and
Mazda models have significantly higher curb weight because of the
additional steel in their cabin cages.

> "Safety" is right between your ears. Everything else is window dressing.
> That includes seat belts.

Bah. While I'll grant that driver behavior is the most important
component of driving safety,[1] I've been in more than one collision
where my car was legally positioned and stopped in traffic, and some
jackass ran into it. I've seen a *lot* of such accidents. As far
as I'm concerned, the safety equipment in my car is there to protect
me from events I can't anticipate - and as long as I drive, there
will be some.

I've towed a car which had been proceeding properly down the road
when a vehicle coming the other way swerved into their lane
immediately in front of them. No room for avoidance; no time to
stop, and it wouldn't help anyway since the oncoming vehicle wasn't
under control. If the passengers in that car hadn't been wearing
seatbelts, their chances of survival would have been very small.

Obviously, safety features are secondary, and certainly for me
they're not the deciding factor in choosing a brand or model; while I
like my Volvo, I enjoyed my Hondas more, and I like their efficiency
and practicality. But safety differences do exist among models and
it's not unreasonable to make that a criterion when selecting a
vehicle.


1. Other than avoiding being in or near moving vehicles in the
first place, of course.

--
Michael Wojcik michael.wojcik@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Every allegiance to some community eventually involves such a fetish,
which functions as the disavowal of its founding crime: is not 'America'
the fetish of an infinitely open space enabling every individual to
pursue happiness in his or her own way? -- Slavoj Zizek
.

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