Do you feel safe

[SanitysBane]

me personally, feel a whole lot safer in my "hotrod" 83 truck, than our 2002 2500HD chevrolet, that stupid thing has the throttle by wire so you have no direct control to the engine, it likes to randomly go into nutral or take off really slowly, and then u press the gass alittle more and then sudenly the truck's computer wakes up and goes, oh you want to go! and then slams the truck into drive, i really hate it, on top of the really narrow tires, and high center of gravity, i feel safter corning in my truck, and i have never been in a situation were the air bags were needed or the abs. i wish my truck was a crewcab so i could take it out on the weekends with my friends instead of the blue '02. just my .02cents

[454_72_4X4]

throttle by wire

Just another "great " idea.
I didn't know the trucks even had that yet. When did they start putting that on them. I wonder just what the advantages of the throttle by wire are "supposed" to be.

[SanitysBane]

its only the 8.1 as far as i can tell, still a stupid idea. i guess its to keep from breaking stuff up as bad

[79Silv4x4]

Yes, I feel safe but I also understand that, as a general rule, the new vehicles are far safer. We can all make arguments and provide what if scenarios but the reality is that the newer vehicles (despite the plastic, etc) have about 30 years of technology as their advantage. Older cars have more metal and don't crumple as well--that means the majority of the energy transfer makes it to the occupants. Newer cars are designed to collapse, crater and crumple but maintain passenger compartment integrity. Of cousre it always comes down to the vehcles involved--in a crash I'll take my Burb over a Honda Civic but I'll take the Ford Excursion Diesel over my Burb. . .

[Destructo]

Personally my VW is probably safer than my truck, it stops quicker (MUCH quicker), has front and side air-bags (I think air bags are good in a bad enough crash, i'll take a broken nose anyday over death) and its DESIGNED to absorb and impact, these truck were not design to absorb the impact and will transfer it to the occupants, thats bad, the frame and body will not absorb much impact in reality.

But, I don't stop driving my just because of that, I usually don't even give that aspect any thought, but if i'm going to be in a bad accident i'm most likely going to come out better in the VW than in my truck.

[Destructo]

Originally Posted by 454_72_4X4

Just another "great " idea.
I didn't know the trucks even had that yet. When did they start putting that on them. I wonder just what the advantages of the throttle by wire are "supposed" to be.

My VW has DBW (Drive By Wire), never had any issues arise from it, and the good thing is the throttle response is nice and smooth and the pedal never has hard spots or feels rough, and you don't have cables to maintain. Mine is a manual transmission too though, has hydraulic brakes and clutch, so no cables at all on the entire car except for hood release lol.

[Apache]

I feel just as safe in a older vehicle as in a newer one. IMO Airbags dont always work right. My mom has a 04 cavy and one of the major things I dislike about it is when the car has no power you cannot get the seatbelts off. So if you had a wreck and it damaged the battery or cables and the car didnt have power you wouldnt be able to get the seatbelts off. Imagine sitting in a wrecked car and its about to catch fire....yet you are helpless.

My apache doesnt have power steering or power brakes. It doesnt have seatbelts either. I feel just as safe driving it as riding in a newer car. On vehicles that dont have power brakes you have to give yourself a little more braking room incase the car ahead of you stops suddenly. Basically if you know your vehicles ablity/limits you are alot safer....no matter if its a new car or an old car.

[SanitysBane]

Quote from Apache:
Basically if you know your vehicles ablity/limits you are alot safer....no matter if its a new car or an old car.


i agree completely, i belive that there shouldn't be higher insurance rates for the corvettes and other sport cars. if you know the limits of you, and the car, its a whole lot more probable that you can out manuvure in a situation that would cause an acident BUT the people driving the car must have the discipline to know when and when not to test there limits and were to do it, and to drive like normal people.

[allthrtl]

79silv4x4 hit the nail right on the head. Do any of you folks remeber Dale Earnhardt? That is a perfect of example of the occupant absorbing the impact. Older trucks are not built to "crumple" in a collision, therefore the impact is not absorbed by the truck, but buy the occupants. Say you remove your ABS and Air bags, went head on with a concrete wall at 30mph, you are WAY more likely to be severly injured in one of our old trucks than you will be in a newer one. Sure, there are instances where our old trucks will perform better, but in the end the newer ones are much safer.

Now, with all that said, I'm not about to pay $30,000-40,000 for a new truck, I'm perfectly happy with my little hotrods, but my wife will ALWAYS be caring my son around in a new vehicle, period...

[Ecnerwal]

It's mostly the nut behind the wheel. I drive very conservatively, to the point where I'd drive my younger self nuts, and my wife's driving drives me nuts - follows too close, goes too fast for my taste (and she's driving an ABS airbag 1994 car). The consequences of a screwup in a 6000+ lb truck are a bit too dire to worry about what some idiot behind me thinks - and yes, I actually do care about not killing _other_ people with my truck, thanks. If you actually think about it, you might find that you do, too. I leave plenty of space in front, and I go at speeds I know I can stop from in the space I can see. I don't waste brain power being angry at stupid drivers - I expect them to be stupid, and I stay relaxed, since they behave as I expect them to. I don't talk on a cell phone and drive. I'm yet another motorcyclist, and took an MSF course, which involves a lot of thinking about not getting in an accident as part of your riding. That translates well to driving.

However, newer trucks do have better behavior WRT saving the occupants in a crash. I'm not convinced that 2005 trucks are so much better at it than 2002 trucks owned by the "trade every 3 years" set (and that can save you a few tens of thousands of dollars), but either compared to a 1984 or 1987 is going to be a lot better. Affording either of those is beyond my budget, however. Anyone know if a seat with headrests can be found that's compatible with a 1987 body? In a crew cab, you don't even get to smack the glass with your head - it goes right over backwards...

As for what to buy, brand, schmand. My backhoe is a Ford diesel, it works, and it doesn't need all the bodywork my Chevy truck does, even though it's about twice as old. Of course, a Ford truck would... I invite anyone with one of those "Rather push.." bumper stickers to give it a try with either one - I'll drive the one that works today, thanks. But I think you're nuts to buy one brand-new, regardless of the brand, if you have any concerns about money at all, and you seem to.