“…but if the meds can’t get you out of a car because the coushioned frame is wrapped around you, what good is it?”
But they can get you out, so why do you ask this question? The emergency crew has cutting tools that will have the roof and doors off quickly, allowing your extraction.
The Corvair had company in the placement of the steering box, although it was somewhat further back on most other cars. Consumer Reports complained about the placement of the steering box on many cars at that time. I think that the steering columns that would collapse became standard about 1968, so maybe the pressure from CR helped. Interestingly, Preston Tucker had safety in mind in the Tucker automobile that never went into full production. The 1951 Kaiser had some safety features not available on the big three cars.
I have a colleague whose wife was in a bad autombile accident but survived. He attributes his wife’s survival to the fact that she was driving a Mercedes Benz. Now both of their vehicles are a Mercedes Benz automobiles. I’m not certain that the Mercedes Benz is any safer than a lot of other cars, but he thinks they are. One thing is certain–the Mercedes Benz is safer than a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air.
Perhaps…but to exaggerate on the part of the consumer where ultimately thousands of lives were/are saved is a far cry from the exaggerations and “lying” on the part of manufacturers where lives are lost.
A situation that agravated the Corvairs 'questionable"handling was the tire inflation specs,I don’t have them in front of me but I remember that they differed by 7-10psi (with front being lower.
This concept was hard for many to grasp and consequently many Corvairs ran around with unsafe tire pressures.
Oldschool is correct.
I recall another car safety-oriented book that was published around the same time as Nader’s more famous book, Unsafe At Any Speed, and in that other book, the author made the rounds of Chevrolet dealership service departments to ask about the recommended tire pressures for his Corvair. In no case did any of the dealerships get it right.
While the Owner’s Manual did list the correct pressures (something on the order of 16 front/24 rear, IIRC), there was no emphasis on how important it was to maintain this type of bias front and rear. No sticker in the glove compartment, no sticker on the driver’s door jamb. Just an isolated mention in the manual that too few people read, even today.
Since GM knew that the Corvair was prone to extreme oversteer and “tuck-in” of the rear tires, it was exceedingly negligent of them to fail to emphasize the crucial tire inflation factor. And, since apparently the dealerships were not properly schooled in this either, most Corvairs probably left the dealership with the wrong tire pressures. The result was a lot of totally needless accidents and deaths.
As was pointed out in an earlier post, an aftermarket Camber Compensator remedied the tricky handling quite effectively, and GM actually did add this feature after a few years. Unfortunately, that was too late for the people killed by the Corvairs of the first few years.
Sounds like a similar omission on the part of the car manufacturers who failed to warn buyers of potential problems with earlier SUVs and under inflation. The Explorer in particular. In reality, they are all guilty to one degree or another of short changing the public safety wise. That’s why we have the agencies we do, and those who think govt. can’t be trusted, still have to trust them regardless every time they climb behind the wheel. I just don’t have the time or the proving grounds to wring out every potential buy. And, I can’t trust advertising laden Car and Driver or Motor Trend on these issues.
While that is a problem with newer cars…see this article:
http://www.drive.subaru.com/Sum06_WhatsInside.htm (reprinted from a firefighter publication)
would you rather they have trouble getting you out of the car, or would you rather it be easy…but they HOSE you out of the car?