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by David Thornhill Thompson
Ten years
ago, in my role as the “Auto Advisor,” a weekly commentary on life with
the automobile for the the News & Observer, in Raleigh, North
Carolina, I was asked to suggest an appropriate car for a teenager going
off to college. With trepidation and against my better judgment, I sallied
forth to become a teenager's worst nightmare by recommending something
that a grandparent could feel good about and by which a parent could shed
that awful feeling of personal responsibility that comes with stuffing
your precious cargo into a barrel just upriver of the falls. I tried a
light-hearted approach and I got lots of mail, some with a sense of humor,
some not.
Now, after
ten years of teaching teens and parents accident avoidance and defensive
driving skills in The New Driver Car Control Clinic, I have a new
perspective on this issue. I no longer think that it's funny. Having met
dozens of grieving parents and friends, having studied in depth the ugly
statistics and accident reports (notice that the politically correct in
the "safety community' no longer call them accidents -- now they are
crashes and someone is presumed to be responsible) and having been asked
by hundreds of parents face-to-face for my recommendations, I have had to
give this question some serious, research-based thought. Here is what I
think today:
NEW V. USED
For
everyone, a new car is an ego trip, pure self-indulgence. Please don't
pretend that you don't know about the 25-30% depreciation the proud new
owners instantly suffer as they motor happily away from the dealership.
You know. You just don't care because it makes you feel good. And more
power to you. If you can afford it, you deserve it.
But, what
about a new driver with the proven 25-33% expectation of a crash in the
first 12 months? These are the people, after all, who invented holes in
jeans, unwashed hair, grunge, baggy pants, no shaving. So why do they need
a shiny new car? To impress who? The neighbors? In fact, I absolutely know
of several teens that have asked their parents not to buy them a new car
because it would be an embarrassment among their Gen Y friends.
Just say no
and hold out the carrot. If they can exhibit the sense of responsibility
demonstrated by grade point progress or other achievement, acceptance of
family responsibility and reasonable attitude toward property and the
risks parents take when they sign the papers for a driver's license and
car insurance, then they will have earned a future promotion to a better
car. But, not on day one.
SPORTS CARS
V. ALL OTHERS
As an
automotive enthusiast, a racer, a collector-a 24-karat car nut, I'm really
conflicted here. The first piece of extra cash I ever had, even before I
graduated from college, went for a Corvette. (used) That was followed by a
Triumph TR4 (used), and then a Porsche (used). And later, race cars. So
it's not easy to turn my back on the emotional appeal of sports cars to
the young. Just do it. Turn your back and quietly explain that they are
dangerous instruments in the hands of the inexperienced and emotionally
unpredictable. By their very nature, the wonderful, seductive buggers
encourage fast driving, taking chances and exposing the occupants to bad
things. And their "track record" in terms of crashes, serious injury and
fatalities is awful. After all, it is your money and you don't have to
deposit it in the bank of future regrets.
SAFE CARS
And the
envelope please -- This is the essence of the question every parent asks.
Although no one says, "Help me decide how to make the right choice here,"
that is the heart of the matter. I'm going to buy my child a weapon of
mass destruction and I need to have some moral support so that if it
mistakenly goes off, I won't think I made a stupid mistake. Mistake, Ok.
But stupid, no. Well now we can get down to some science. Not the greatest
but at least an attempt at fact-based decision making-perhaps more useful
than "feelings."
No, SUVs are
not "safer" than cars. Safer than pickups, yes. Cars, no. According to the
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), an insurance industry
lobbying and research organization, cars 1-4 years old in 2000-01 had a
rate of deaths per million cars of 127; for SUVs 129; and for pickups 188.
Get it? Don't buy your new driver a pickup unless he needs to contribute
to the family coffers by moving furniture in his spare time. Otherwise, he
could become a negative cash flow.
Despite the
similarities of death rates between cars and SUVs, the kinds of fatal
crashes are different. Here is an excerpt from the IIHS report to the US
Senate in February, 2003: "Single vehicle rollover crashes consistently
account for about 20% of car occupant deaths. In contrast...the
corresponding percentage for SUVs was 48%." Thus, the risk of a fatal
single vehicle rollover in an SUV is more than double that of cars.
While it is
true that in a conflict, the greater mass defeats the lesser, in recent
years the differences between the weight of the average SUV and the
average car has diminished significantly. Cars are getting heavier and
SUVs are getting lighter for many reasons, not the least of which are
safety concerns. Buyers of SUVs should not believe that their greater size
alone is likely to reduce the consequences of a crash.
ACCIDENT
AVOIDANCE
Which leads
us to the most important analytical advancement in identifying safer
vehicles. That is the recognition that a crash is not a static event as
produced by the National Highway Safety Agency (NHTSA) or IIHS in their
so-called crash testing. While their individual tests differ, they share
the same premise. That is that by measuring the effects of a crash on the
occupants of a vehicle, in this case, highly instrumented crash dummies,
they can predict the safety performance of the vehicle. This, of course,
completely ignores the very real likelihood that the driver might have the
opportunity to alter the outcome of the crash. How? Perhaps by using the
brakes effectively. Or, perhaps by turning away from the crash or steering
around the obstacle.
Recently,
Consumer Reports, the monthly magazine of the Consumers Union has
taken a new tack in evaluating vehicles for safety qualities. They have
introduced something they call "The CR Safety Assessment" which compares
85 vehicles in terms of accident avoidance, crash protection and overall
safety." Wow, someone actually considering brakes as a safety component?
And tires and suspension systems and yes--weight and maneuverability? The
magazine evaluates the vehicles' braking, emergency handling, driving
position, visibility plus its crash test demonstration of survivability to
arrive at a summary rating of safety. This is a development that auto
enthusiasts and teachers of driving skills applaud. Because even without
government testing we know from personal experience that weight can be as
much of an enemy (for example as in trying to keep the vehicle on a hard
surface with traction and out of the slippery grass or in stopping before
the crash) as it may be a benefit in the crash itself.
AND NOW
THE ENVELOPE PLEASE
Like food
and clothing, the choice of cars is immensely personal. So you can expect
your teen to have definite opinions. "Oh gawd, I wouldn't be caught dead
in that!" Some compromise may be required. But if I were the father of a
teenager, particularly a new driver and I had failed the “be strong test”
and got myself committed to the idea of his/her own car, here is what I
would do. First, I would get a copy of the latest "New Car Issue" of
Consumer Reports. The current one is April 2003 (no, I don't work for
them-they don't even answer my mail when I congratulate them on their good
works) and study the lists in the section entitled "Which cars are Safer?"
The good news is that there are no Corvettes, Mustangs, Mitsubishi 3000s
and the like there. But still, lots of cars to choose from. Great cars
like Volkswagen New Beetles, Honda Civics, Audi A-4s with Quattro drive
(yum), Hyundai Santa Fe, and my personal favorites, the Volkswagen Jetta
and the Mini Cooper. Then shop around with your new driver. The strategy
here is to overwhelm them with options until they say, "Daddy, which one
do you like?" Then be cool.
And if all
else fails you can check out the original recommendation for "Kars For
Kids I" circa 1993. Just go here: http://www.carcontrol.com/columns/kars.html
And, have a happy life. DTT
©2003 David T Thompson |