What’s interesting is how the other makers still keep a decent score through the years. In Zoe’s case it seems they really optimized for the 2013 tests and had nothing to show for the more challenging tests.
Also 3 stars doesn’t look bad to me if you meet the bare minimum standard. I mean, it’s fine and people will look at the prices to compare anyway.
The good news is that her passive safety systems worked fine and she came out unharmed except for minor burns and bruises caused by the airbag.
I've also experienced unwanted braking in cars with an auto-brake system. Nether in a situation where it could be dangerous, thankfully, but it is clear that the system is not 100% reliable.
There’s also the emergency brake assist systems that do operate a speed. They use front facing radar to detect objects you might be about to collide with, and increase the brake pressure assistance, so you still need to physically press the brake. But if the car thinks you won’t stop in time, then it’ll multiply your break input to try and bring the car to a holt fast enough. But, you need to provide the initial brake input, they won’t fire alone.
No, what if it auto-brakes at the wrong time and you get rear-ended due to the person behind you not expecting a brake spike out of nowhere?
That's fine, and fortunately for you, you can still buy and operate that vehicle legally, it's fine. However you might and should expect the insurance on it to be appropriately higher than a 5-star rated vehicle.
>>Also consider that the new NCAP ratings aren't about real safety.
That's exactly what they are about, just because you don't care about those systems doesn't mean they are not about safety. If you didn't care about airbags that wouldn't suddenly make the test that requires them "not about safety".
The systems tend to be quite noisy and annoying, and also won’t keep you in lane by themselves, and they normally result in the car “ping-ponging” between the lane markers until the system gives up and stops applying input. There is nothing about these systems that would cause to actual rely on them, they’re simply too annoying and uncomfortable.
You’ll never make a consumer vehicle that can protect its occupants in a 100mph head-on collision with a semi truck. But you can make a vehicle that turns that crash into a 40mph collision with minor injuries or even avoids it completely.
I rented a car recently that would steer back into the lane if you went over the line. It was great. Would definitely save my life if I fell asleep on a long roadtrip and started drifting.
They are also more prone to roll, which dispenses with the "well I'm safer!", and have been shown to cause far more fatalities and life-changing injuries when involved in multi-car pile ups.
That's before we even get to the ecological cost (initial construction and then keeping it running), European infrastructure that wasn't designed for cars of that size etc. etc. etc.
The real question, I would think, is whether a larger car takes longer to brake to a stop than a smaller car, or do the quality of the brakes go up linearly with the weight of the car.
Modern SUVs seem to be hatchbacks with very subtle styling differences and (checking the first example that comes to mind) something like 3.6 inches more ground clearance and 250 lbs additional weight. That is the difference between a Subaru CrossTrek and a Subaru Impreza.
Of course there are much bigger SUVs, but I'd think they're substituting for minivans which also are massive.
When I read something expressing visceral anger over huge SUVs, I imagine maybe they are a time traveler from decades ago, when an SUV was invariably a body-on-frame "light truck" that could be used for snowplowing.
For many years, I would see people sneering at Americans for not buying hatchbacks. Then Americans switched to crossovers that are really hatchbacks that are styled slightly differently. And apparently Europeans have followed suit. It's uncharitable of me, but I wonder if the real source of bile for some people is an instinctive hatred for any trend that follows the US, rather than Europe leading the way.
I have been hit by an SUV while driving a regular car, by the way, and indeed they sustained a lot less damage than I did. However, nobody was injured, so "being ok" is not necessarily about "hurting people".