when i watched that video of the s class vs the smart car...
it would be hard for me to imagine that the smart car occupants would not suffer some form of injury from extremely high g forces due to the impact itself and the abrupt change of force application.
if you notice the smart car driver upon impact...his head is whipped around in multiple directions and most disturbingly it flings out the side window. the temporal bone, being as thin as it is...would more than likely have been fractured causing (possibly) irreversible head injury along with (possible) severe neck trauma.
the s class passengers heads continued with a smooth forward motion into the airbags.
is this a fair comparison? no, absolutely not. i believe that when it is easy, it is easy. there is no need to 'think' about easy. it is for enjoyment. i think about the difficult because this is where things can make life tough for a very long time.
i believe the test is not fair. they should have used some of the more common cars i see on the roads and freeways here. these include denali's, suburban's, escalades along with lexus ls', benz s and e classes, bmw 5 and 7 series, ford navigators and f150's, honda accords and toyota camry's. these are the most common cars in my area.
i can see the most damage to the smart car occupants with my first listed because they appear the most on the road. most are driven by harried mothers transporting their kids to some form of practice and to be in time for everything else.
call it unfair to match a huge vehicle to a smart car...but that is reality. this is america. we have BIG cars...and a lot of them. i think that the smart car is great for europe where there is little to no huge vehicles like those found in the united states. to me, this makes sense. but when you mix a tough golf cart vs a 6000+ pound vehicle...inertia itself already wins.
american lifestyle requires large vehicles. what? yep! i constantly see people hauling their motorcycles, seedoo's, boats, campers etc around. these 'toys' require big vehicles to pull this junk around. we all know a smart car, a honda civic, toyota tercel can not transport the junk we seem to require to 'enjoy' life.
big vehicles wont go away overnight and little vehicles appear to be making a strong entry over the past few years...let's hope we can all get along on the same roads...of course, with the overly aggressive, stressful and fatigued driving population of america!!!
