high larious!!

 

This is especially frustrating for those who did their homework and saw 5 star gummint ratings and 'good' ratings for IIHS side impacts, and purchased a Fit for those reasons (well, the mileage too).

The media gets on whatever bandwagon is going by, but I'll be surprised if Fit sales don't take a hit on this, especially if gas stays near $2 @.
Moon

 

good then people will buy huge suvs, then the big 3 will be saved, and i can buy my GE for cheap hahahaa win-win

 

i was in a minor fender bender a few months ago. it was avoidable if i was running better tires. the ziex912's contributed to the crash imho. they just do not grip well in cold temps.

with the Fit's handling and running the well balanced endura-techs made a potentially pretty serious accident to very minor. so im not complaining.

plus i used the insurance check to buy other things while i fixed the dent myself. hahaha check my blog or album page.

 

You can go beyond speculation about fatal accidents at this site: Informed For Life

There is a wealth of data. Use the little window to compare your Fit to other cars. You sport navi owners will want to "customize" your results to include VSA, which significantly reduces rollovers (by more than 40%) and lowers the risk score.

I had an interesting time looking through this site and reading some of the documents. It gave me pause to consider the additional risk of driving a lightweight car. As previous posters mentioned, you can never set aside the laws of physics.

From the site homepage: "The effect of vehicle class and weight is identified as Risk Element #1."

I guess we better count on the Fit's agility.

Here is an article about the site: The REAL Ten Most Dangerous Vehicles of 2009 | The Truth About Cars

Cheers.

 

Agility indeed.
We need to drive like a Messerschmitt pilot over Coventry...
Actually, the Fit's score on the Informed For Life page was pretty good; all depends on the yardstick you measure with, I 'spect. The SCORE does seem to balance a number of factors.
Moon

 

Yes, but where does it end? It's only here in the US where you have large cars. So if you go by the mentality that heavier is safer, then is everyone going to buy Ford Expeditions? That's silly. We need to downsize to smaller cars because they make sense.

 

In general terms I agree. I've owned a bunch of 'utes, but smaller ones, Jeep Cherokees and a Wrangler. Cost of fuel not considered, I'd cheerfully drive 'em forever. I also get them muddy and haul junk in them; my Jeeps aren't 'mall rated'. BTW, my Jeeps always got about the same mileage as my bride's V-6 sedans; really great mileage has always meant doing what we're doing...go small.

The long and the short, tho'- either through gas taxes or other means, energy is going to get a LOT more expensive the next years. The current administration willfully won't acknowledge that oil and coal will remain the main sources of energy. A shortage of oil especially will make $4 @ look like a bargain.
Moon

 

I agree. I believe that it is the large vehicles that have become anachronistic. They, not the smaller cars, are indeed the problem on the roads, and for many reasons. Much of the rest of the world seems to get it. We will too, in time.

In the meantime, be vigilant. The laws of physics will outlast us all. I choose to live with the risks. I love traveling by Fit.

Cheers.

 

Hehe...I like that..."Travel by Fit...will travel."

 

What we're losing sight of here is the other vehicle was an Accord; now, granted, Accords are bigger/heavier than they once were. But we're not talking hitting a 'ute; we're talking an everyman's sedan.
As noted, the Informed For Life website gives a somewhat different view of the risk, and I'm not about to dump the Fit.
But, be apprised that the day everyone is driving a 'B car' is a long way off, here in the states.
Moon

 

This is yet another reason that the Fit needs a larger engine: to scoot out of the way fast...

 

I never feel safe in any car. Anything can happen at any time.

 

We spent ten hours in our Fit last Sunday. There wasn't much to do with the cruise control on and naviwoman talking to me. As you see from the pic, with 100 miles to go we were a long way from anywhere.



I got to thinking about this thread and wondered what the actual chance was of dying in the Fit this year. I mean, whether I feel safe or not, what are my chances? I couldn't find any specific data for the Fit, but there are data about fatalities: Fatality Facts 2007: Occupants

I'm between 55 and 59. In 2007, "only" 5% of the people who died in cars were in my age range (1148 people). I guess we are too busy dying of other things to get killed in cars.

In that same year, 64 people of all ages driving "minicars" like the Fit died in car accidents. They don't tell you how many of them were in Aveos.That is a rate of 81 deaths per million miles driven. Not great, but better than the "small" car rate of 96 deaths per million miles traveled.

While my chances would be better in a larger car (much better, apparently) if there is a normal age distribution of drivers in "minicars" "only" three to four drivers our age will be killed in a year in these little cars. I guess statistically my wife and I are quite safe in our Fit, at least if we don't hit anything bigger than we are.

No surprise, but it's the pickup trucks that look like the real death traps.

Let's all drive carefully out there.

Cheers

 

I'll take my chances in a Honda over a small GM or Ford.

The fit and finish on a Honda or Toyota is vastly superior to GM or Ford. If GM or Ford cannot pay attention to the small stuff, why would you expect them pay attention to the bigger stuff (safety)?

 

JGW I could not agree more. But it is obvious that because of it superior mass any large vehicle is going to cause damage on anything smaller! The answer is to drive as if there is a vehicle bumper out there with your name on it! Here in the Atlanta area we have a lot of drivers that must have come down here, like me, that used to live in the NE. lol
Everyone, including my car pool passenger, thinks that bigger is better but does not realize that all it takes is one quick correction at relative slow speed to turn over a SUV.

Well, wow! Those pictures and description tells the tail. Maybe it is because the smaller car is lower and hit just right! Like a small person, midget, tripping up a larger taller person?!
I wonder how the other parties feel about their larger vehicles? Thank God no one was injured.

 

Interesting this thread is still going, I just received an email about it. Guys, bottom line whatever we want to tell ourselves, we're in a lot of trouble if we get into an accident with a car the size of an Accord or larger. A head on collision with an SUV, forget it, we're as good as dead. 2,500 lbs VS 5,000 lbs is not a fair fight. Bigger and heavier is generally safer especially combined with all of the modern safety gear. I'm going to give the guy in his 3,600 lb Accord a much better chance of surviving a head-on collision than anyone in a Fit. You can't change the laws of physics regardless of how many airbags you have, or fancy tricks you do to the body structure of the car.

However these reports should not be news to anyone owning a Fit. Even without the IIHS crashing a Fit and an Accord common sense should tell you we're driving a much more dangerous car when it comes to an accident. Seriously, if you thought your Fit was as safe as an Accord you really were lying to yourself. I know the risks however and I accept them because I love my Fit and I will accept the good with the bad. Just means I'm a much more defensive driver, which in today's day and age of cell-phone talking, distracted soccer moms in their 5,000 lb SUV's, or raging idiots in their 5,000 lb pickup trucks you need to be.

 

More on this one from Canada...

A collective "duh" for IIHS's crash test findings

Cheers.

 

My parents witnessed something very similar. They were pedestrians right at the scene. A VW bug ran a stop sign and T-boned a Ford Explorer at the rear axel. The rear wheels of the explorer bounced up and down out of control, and in a semicircle around the front of the car. It eventually hit the curb and flipped over.
The bug was going maybe 20 miles an hour. The explorer was totaled. The bug cracked its bumper.


I always expected to die if I ever crashed on the highway. I figured, if you're going that fast and you crash, nothing is going to save you.
However I totaled my '00 corolla (vs. '94 civic) in a rear-end on the highway. The woman in front of me braked hard, and I went into the left lane to avoid her, so she followed me into my lane still braking. Oh, and for no reason. It's not like she saw anything in the road. I guess she just decided to brake and move left for the fun of it. It was a lovely sunny summer evening, after all.
My corolla was totaled but I was absolutely fine. And calm. I knew I was going to run out of road so I rode the brakes and waited for impact. At the last second I closed my eyes. The airbag knocked my sunglasses to the floor tho, and the noseband punched me in the process.

Hopefully if I ever crash in my Fit it will go just as well. I couldn't have asked for more from my corolla.

 

With my Hondas, including my '88 Accord, I have steered out of many a potential accident. The only one I did not in recent times was on i****al a***n who backed into my right side headlamp in my 2000 Accord and a small rear ender in my '88 Accord a few years ago.