>The general public is never reminded of the most important safety feature of
>cars that handle and drivers that have had education and practice driving at
>the limits - the ability to not get into the accident in the first place.

It's called "primary safety". And indeed is completely ignored by Big
Brother. After all, BB can only get one fee out of it (training fee)
instead of repeat custom.

Unfortunately US-market cars have soft suspensions, which reduces
primary safety considerably, even to the extent of making cars
downright dangerous; for example, an Australian magazine, "Modern
Motor", tested a local GM product (HZ Holden Kingswood) in about 1978
with the then-current BMW 5-series. The BMW was utterly unable to
avoid obstacles the Holden had no trouble with, and the BMW was
called dangerous. It transpired after the name-calling which followed
that the magazine was correct, and that US-spec suspensions were
being fitted to Aussie-market BMWs. This was immediately rectified
and the problem never reared its ugly head again.

The average American is seen by the manufacturers (right to the
present day) as wanting a cushy ride over all other considerations,
and act accordingly. The US enthusiast is the obvious sufferer,
without necessarily even knowing it. And in part this is why almost
all US cars are generally disregarded outside North America (this
includes Corvettes and Vipers; about the only exception is the
Mercedes Grand Cherokee).

Time for US driving enthusiasts to send letters to your domestic
manufacturers to get with the 20th century... or even perhapos the
21st! Maybe send letters to your congresscritters to tell them that
US marketing criteria are costing lives on the roads.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut