Ideal Bite

Regarding the safety of a Hummer vs compact cars... there's a lot of misinformation out there. I've worked in professional motorsports for several years so I understand automotive dynamics pretty well. Here are the facts: Just because a car is big and heavy, doesn't mean it is safer... particularly for the occupants. The common misconception is that more metal around you will protect you, and that's clearly been proven to be wrong over and again. Consider that trucks and SUVS (including the Hummer) do not fall into as strict crash testing standards as passenger cars. Basic laws of physics state that every action has an equal but opposite reaction. Energy must be absorbed somehow. If your 5,000lb Hummer hits a stationary object and the metal doesn't crumple, guess what? The occupants must absorb the energy. I hear the same comments all the time when people see a crunched up economy car and the occupants walk away... "Oh my God! They're so lucky!". Luck has nothing to do with it, engineering does. Economy cars are designed to crumple upon impact and absorb the energy so that the occupants don't. Same concept as tiny Indycars or Formula One cars where the driver hits the wall at 200mph and walks away. NASCAR has finally borrowed that same concept with the "Car of Tomorrow". Crumple zones with a safety capsule. Now if your Hummer hits my Honda, there's no telling who will get hurt worse. Your Hummer might actually case you as much injury as it does to me.

Let me be the first to say that I would NEVER step foot in a prius or most hybrids for that matter. One reason, is that do you really think that if a prius and a Hummer collided (or ANY full sized SUV for that matter), the Hummer driver is going to be hurt? The prius driver should be on their knees thanking god, if they even survived the accident. Sorry, but my family comes before any others, and if that means driving an H2, Navigator, Suburban, Escalade, ect...that that is what I will do. Also, when you need to move things or haul things, how exactly do you do it in your prius? The other day, we went and bought an apple tree for our front yard. We bought a small one and the thing was to the dash and hanging out the end of our H2. Do your prius people pay others to haul things like this....i really do not understand. AND snow....how does that thing handle in snow....oh, I know the answer to that. I have pulled out soooo many hybrids over the last few years, that it is ridiculous!! So besides getting more millage, what are additional pros for buying this death trap and no cargo space thing????

Mr clean....I totally disagree with you. I have seen many accidents with SUV's and cars. The reason that SUV drivers were hurt is because they were NOT wearing their seat belts. My mother-in-law was in a sedan Lexus and hit an on coming Jeep. She broke six ribs and had internal damage (was told by EMT that she was lucky she survived) and the engine of car flew out onto the street. Guess what?......the occupants of the jeep were not hurt at all, not to mention the jeep had a little tiny scratch on it and the Lexus was hauled off to the junk yard. After that, getting into a car scares the crap out of me......BTW, Lexus is "suppose" to be one of the top rated vehicles for crashes......if that is the case, no thank you.

MrClean, first off, a hummer will be more like 8000lbs, not 5000. Second, you reference the ability to absorb impact. That is affected by how much metal there is and how rigid the metal is. I'm willing to bet that if you hit an immovable object at 30mph with only a pillow between you and it, you'll suffer quite a bit of injury, even though the pillow will be far superior to even the mighty prius when it comes to crumple-ability. Last but not least, in your example of an accident between a prius and a hummer, your prius will be nothing like an immovable object to the hummer. Quite the opposite, it'll be much worse since the immovable object will likely be moving towards you (in a head on at least anyway), and it won't have the niceness of a wall - everything flat - meaning you'll be halfway under the hummer, meaning the little protection you have from your 5mph bumper will be in vain, and it'll basically be your windshield and sunglasses, vs a 4 ton ball of steel. You're right in saying for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. If you look at a pinball machine you'll notice the effects of something with little mass (ball) hitting something with relative large mass (the machine and all of the attached props the ball has to hit). This is an exagerated example as the ratio of the mass of the ball vs mass of machine is MUCH smaller than the prius vs hummer, but gets the point across. Hitting a hummer in a prius will be more like hitting a brick wall for the prius, if not worse - more like a wall moving towards you. Hitting a prius in a hummer will be more like a prius hitting a bicycle or motorcycle. The towing, payload, snow handling and all of the others mentioned make the 'inappropriate' behemoth SUVs a much more versatile vehicle than a prius. If you plan on going to work and back and never doing anything else, a Prius will be great for you. If you plan on going on a vacation, camping, owning a boat, travel trailer, jetskis, snowmobiles, dirtbikes, and/or have a large family, a truck/SUV will be MUCH more suited. Before someone mentions a minivan; find me one that can tow a 10000lb travel trailer; and I'll trade in my V10 Excursion.

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