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Thread: The truth about buying a safer car

  1. #1
    Senior Member AlphaMicra's Avatar
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    The truth about buying a safer car

    No doubt many of you may have been, or will be, challenged about the inherent safety - or lack thereof - of buying a small car like the Micra. With the launch of the Micra, the rhetoric has reached a fever pitch. I debunk two of the most common pieces of evidence presented in my latest blog post here:

    http://mymicra.com/?p=339



    In our culture obsessed with absurd excess, the Nissan Micra is my counterculture car of choice.
    Be sure to visit my blog at mymicra.com!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Micra SV manual: 6.4 L/100 km ... 44.3 mpg (Imp) ... 15.7 km/L ... 36.9 mpg (US) ...


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    Administrator MetroMPG's Avatar
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    Good points: I like your comparison of the different death rates for the 4-door vs. 2-door Yaris, otherwise essentially the same vehicle.

    ---

    One interesting tidbit about safety & the Canadian Micra:

    Because it's not for sale (yet?) in the U.S., we're not going to see the famous IIHS crash test videos that people like to share on YouTube. (Though we can still look at the Euro Micra crash test videos.)

    Specifically, we're not going to see their newest, very tough "small overlap" crash test which older designs (more than a year or 2 old) are "failing" spectacularly. No subcompact has received a "good" rating on that test to date.

    We also won't see a "starred" rating (e.g. "4/5 stars"), which is how the U.S. NHTSA rates the relative safety of cars.

    All we know is the Micra meets current Canadian crashworthiness and safety standards.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Micra S manual: 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.5 mpg (Imp) ... 20.0 km/L ... 47.0 mpg (US) ...


  3. #3
    Senior Member AlphaMicra's Avatar
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    I think the crash tests are a good idea, but they're not reflective of the vehicle make and model death rate. All we hear are rants about how unsafe small cars are, when, in reality, these statistics are telling us something entirely different that we all should be paying attention to. If we can legislate cars to meet certain crashworthiness and safety standards, why can't we legislate proper defensive driving training for all new drivers as a requirement to obtain a driver's license? We have made it law that our cars need to have their emissions checked every other year after a certain age in order to renew our license plate stickers, but the only time a safety inspection is required is if the car changes ownership.

    Whenever someone mentions to me how unsafe they believe a Micra is due to its size, I ask them if they've ever taken a course in defensive driving (so far the answer has been a unanimous no), and when was the last time they had a safety inspection done on their vehicle (never). Then I tell them, based on their answers, they are telling me they don't really care about safety and instead are just being a boor. It might not make me any new friends, but it does give them something to think about.



    In our culture obsessed with absurd excess, the Nissan Micra is my counterculture car of choice.
    Be sure to visit my blog at mymicra.com!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Micra SV manual: 6.4 L/100 km ... 44.3 mpg (Imp) ... 15.7 km/L ... 36.9 mpg (US) ...


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