Kars 4 Kids II                     [Be Sure to Read Kars For Kids I Click Here]

   .

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