Tom / January 30, 2004 5:44 PM / Permalink
There are some key issues with your arguement. The first is covered in the IIHS web site you link to, and is you cannot compare the results of two vehilce from different classes. The greater the mass of the vehicle the greater the damage. So the large vehicle, hitting a fixed object must absorb more energy. I will give you the point that it is a disapointment that 2004 Heritage substained so much damage, but if you again look at the IIHS web site you will find the Ford has done their home work and the new 2004 scores the abest raiting and is IIHS's top pick. I guess he bean counters lost on that one!

Two, I may not have done extensive research, but I am a traffic engineer and have done countless accident investigations of both intersection and non intersection segements. In the studies I have done, single vehicle accidents are by no means the majority, but more the acception. So I disagree with the protection aspect of larger verses smaller vehicles. I drive a truck myself had have been hit by a small car. I drove away with a dent and the car was towed!

Three, I agree with you that the Mini is a very well engineered vehicle. For a vehicle with so little crumple zone it is amazing what it can take. But in the real world you are not going see too many blocks of concrete parked along the side of road and will more likely encounter one of the millions of cars on our roads today. In that case, size does have benifit.

 

Not even our truck. This IS the 04-06 forum, isn't it? Besides, it's OLD news at that.

 

What would be more relevant is manufacturer comparisons for 1/2 ton trucks for the current model year. I have a feeling for the same model year as the crunched F150 (02-03?) the other manufactures were not in as good a shape as the mini. The Tocoma is the only other "Pickup" on the list on that page. Does that mean the other pickup manufacturers had zero deaths? That list seems funky doesnt it?

The new model F150 looks pretty tough, 5 stars is good enough for me...

 

Dodge received a poor rating as well. The new Dodge was improved but Dodge did not receive a good rating in all categories like the new Ford F-150.

Dodge Ram 98-01



-----------------------------------------------

1999-2006 Chevy received a poor safety structure rating, poor restraints/kinetics rating, and an overall marginal rating, one step away from poor.

1999-2006 Chevy/GMC 1500



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2004-2006 Ford F150 received a good rating in all categories, received "best pick up" rating.

New Ford F150 04-06






WINNER......The all new Ford F-150.

 

I just dont trust those biased web site statistics. I mean consumer report for instance praises Toyota while bashing basically any Domestic auto. Then they want to claim that F150 are responsible for more deaths, well hell they are the most common truck on the road and much more common in fleet/business use, so of course there will be more accidents simply due to more usage.

This is simply a gimmick to make it sound like smaller cars like the mini are safer than a truck. What you have to realize is the mometnum behind the truck and the car. The truck has a helluva lot of momentum behind it, so its force will be much greater, and the front end of the vehicle will sustain quite a bit more damage than a lighter vehicle if the truck hits a stationary object at high speeds. The mini because of less weight, has much less momentum/ force and the front end does not sustain the damaging forces. Again this is all assuming a single car accident hitting a stationary object.

Now if we were to have the truck and mini colide, the truck obviously has much more forces behind it than the mini, and the mini would be destroyed. End of story.

 

In this test, remember, it is each vehicle's own initertial mass and energy working against itself when crashed into a stationary barrier. The moving truck certainly carries a lot more energy than the Mini.

I'd bet my paycheck that the Mini doesn't fare very well when crashed head-on into the old-style F-150. Given a choice of vehicles in that crash, I'd bet most of us would choose the Ford.

 

Given the stats from the other manufacturers earlier year models, this thread has no reason for being. Except to point out the new F150 is the class leader...

Whats the tow rating on the Mini anyway?

 

I think this is what I saw before. 04-06 is improved a lot.
The pic in the OP is a older model apparently, seen from the rear side window.

 

Crash test ratings are not what I use to determine what vehicle I drive. While it is comforting to know that the new f-150 have such a good rating. It really doesn't matter what rating the cooper or any of these tiny cars get I'll never drive one because I don't want to get run over(literally) by a 150.
It may be a false sense of safety but my wife and I feels safer in my truck or her windstar because she is not hugging the ground while riding in it.
I drove a friends crx to work one day to do some work to it. While sitting at a stop light a tractor trailer pulled up beside me and I actually had to look up to see the top of the tires. NO WAY NOT ME!!!
People can say all they want but I don't want one of them little tiny compacts.

 

Except that riding in a bigger vehicle doesn't avoid 'the majority of accident', which is single vehicle involved accident.


It's definitely safer to sit in a new F-150, which has good hit-wall rating, also plus big and heavy structure.

But I just can't belive so many people keep saying being big/heavy is enough for a car to be safe. The vehicle being big/heavy sometimes kills the passengers in it more, if it is not stronger enough for its heavier weight. I think this situation is why Ford didn't improve F-150 to have good crash rating until 2004. It seems safety really doesn't sell.

 

Amen to that!!!

I have been replacing auto glass for over 20 years. The windshield in todays car is responsible for more than 50% of the roof strength in a rollover,but people don't care. Most seem willing to let anyone with the cheapest price install there glass.
This is what I cannot understand...People will spend what seems like an unlimited amount of money for a car then when it needs repairs there only concern is how deep into there pocket they have to reach.
Quality and safety are foreign words in todays society.

It is really quite sad!!!

 

If more vehicles were deathtraps, there'd be less bad drivers on the road, and the road would be safer.

 

First off, this thread belongs in the 1997-2003 forum, what the heck is it doing here and why was it started here?. Second, our new f150s are the safest vehicle regardless of weight. And lastly, when I turn on my blinker for a lane change and the car in the other lane speeds up, I change lanes anyways. And guess what happens; he moves the hell out of my way because I have a huge truck. Believe me, that does not happen on my motorcycle. That helps me feel safer in my truck.

 

Feeling safer is great, which we enjoy. But don't let it put you in a more aggressive driving manner. otherwise, you lose the extra safety, maybe more. Other drivers being defensive, doesn't mean you're any safer.