Congress cannot repeal the laws of physics…

Nice!

Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day! Have a nice day Joker

Design beats size any day and every day of the week. Given Ford's financial difficulties, I'd never buy another one, as the safety design will surely be cut and relegated to 4th rate status.

Hi Dave! Instead of getting personal why don't you comment on what you thought of the crash test of your 2001 Ford 150 that YOU think is safe. The insurace institute crashed it at 40 mph head on into a barrier and it shows the occupants sustaining SIGNIFICANT INJURIES. Go look at the pictures. The insurance institutes crash test of the smart head on with a MB C class was twice the velocity, both going 40 mph, and there was no intrusion into the smart cars passenger compartment. Now go back and look at the picture of your Ford- OUCH!!! I would strongly suggest that you sell that 2001 Ford 150 because it truly is an unsafe vehicle. The smart car, on the other hand, is so much smaller and harder to hit that any vehicle on the road that the chance of a collision is greatly reduced. Even if it were involved in a collision the tridion safety cell has proved to be indestructable. The head on crash testing DOES support this claim. Go look again at the video- the windshield is even intact. The laws of physics can be negated by good engineering. Open your mind. Cheers! Glenn.

Hi Glen, Thanks for your comments. AS a owner of a Smart, what was the key factor that drew you to the car? Did safety enter into the top 5 reasons that you bought it? If you are like most people, safety was either 9 or 10. Is the car well engineered? Sure, and by the same people that developed the "A" class MB for the EU market. How about this, in place of getting personal with your remark, how about commenting about what you do as a driver that makes you safer? How well does the traction control work? It is easy enough to cut and paste a bunch of text from a web site, but much harder to really defend a position that the Smart car is indeed a safe car. The head-on crash testing does not appear to support the claim.

Hi Dave! Did you ever check the crash tests of your 2001 F150? Here's what the Insurance Inst.says: ''In a June 4, 2001 press release, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety issued a press release containing it's first crash test results for large pickups more than 3500 lbs. The results showed that the Ford F-150 by far performed the worst of the four trucks tested. The release stated that "the best performer in a 40 mph frontal offset crash test was the Toyota Tundra, which is rated good. By far the worst performer was the Ford F-150, which is rated poor. The Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra is rated marginal, and the Dodge Ram is poor." The Toyota Tundra received high ratings in part due to a strong cab which remained intact protecting the occupants (test dummies). "There was very little intrusion into the occupant compartment, very little deformation. As a result, the dummy's movement was well controlled, and the injury measures all were low except for some moderately high forces recorded on the dummy's right leg," Institute president Brian O'Neill says. Ford F-150 is worst: In contrast, the F-150 "exhibited major collapse of the occupant compartment in the offset test," O'Neill points out. "As a result of this collapse, the dummy's movement wasn't well controlled. High injury measures were recorded on the dummy's head and neck. The airbag deployed late in the crash, and this also contributed to the high injury measures." A Ford F150 truck during and after test crash. Forward seat movement combined with and significant intrusion into the passenger compartment by the instrument panel and the steering column resulted in high head and neck injury measurements. '' That's right! You would probably die if you hit anything because of the poor design. So much for physics! I'll take my chances in the Mercedes designed smart. Good luck to you!

Amory Lovins made prototypes of carbon fiber composite vehicles that are very light. He also installed energy absorbers behind the exterior panels to convert crash energy to heat rather than motion. (Are there any crash test videos from that type of automobile constrution?) The SMART car manufacturers could do that, too.

The liability would obviously be on the driver of the smart fortwo. As for who would be dead? Probably no-one, but the most likely to be dead is the driver of the F150, based on it's crash test ratings: www.leasetips.com/f150crashtest.htm

Thanks for your reply Kelly. I find it interesting that your reaction was to focus on how we all have to move to smaller vehicles, and how "insane" it is to drive a truck. One of the points of the material from the IIHS was that there are alternatives to the smaller cars that get the same fuel economy that are larger and safer to drive. I don't argue that we need alternative, but how about looking at alternatives that not only reduce energy usage but do not compromise on safety? The SmartFor2, or any other micro car, is not the answer on our streets and highways today. I brought up the issue in this forum because of the question of liability. The operator of the car in question was not paying attention to the task at hand by using a phone while driving. Who's liability would it have been if he had run the red light? And who would have been dead. I would love to hear from the carrier community about this issue.

No question about the laws of physics Dave. But America has to realize that with our current population growth, dependence on foreign oil, and poor air quality in the major cities, that a move to smaller more fuel efficient cars is the only way to go. These people that drive these new smaller cars are actually stepping up front and taking responsibility for a better quality of life for everyone. In the future when America reaches a population of say 1 billion, should we all be driving F150 trucks so we can see better and think our children are safe? In fact the concept of sticking with the big bad tough guy king of the road type of vehicle should be allowed to slip into history, it had it’s time, I loved it, but unfortunately that time is past. It’s time to start respecting the planet more, there are too many of us now not to. You can protect the kids in that F150 Dave but it won’t do any good if they can’t breathe because everyone thinks they need to drive a bigger than life car or truck. The concept of moving 6,000 pounds of steel to pick up a loaf of bread or drop the kids a school is insane. We need to be respecting these people that drive cars like the smart for 2, they are taking the 1st steps, look at any other country and you can see its coming.