Car safety

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Examining car safety and impact on purchasing Ross Alexander La Bree University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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When buying a new car what should you look for? Should you just look for what you like just because you want it or is there a deeper purpose? Are you looking for a safe car or the best car for your needs? If so then through out this paper you will learn some things that will help you in deciding what type of car is the safest for your needs and then go into explaining what all comes with a car so that you know what you are paying all this money for and is it worth it. I personally have not gone out looking to buy a car yet but I have been with my parents and seen all that they do to find the right car for what we need it for. When my parents start to look into types of cars to buy for my sister and I. they look at safety first it is their number one thing its what matters most to them. Once they have found what the safest car is compared to others they then select a few cars that would fulfill the purpose they want. After they have found these select few cars they will then compare and test the pros and cons against one another and see which one is the safest and then see how much it costs and its purpose. They then average it all out to find the best fit in all the categories that they chose. This paper will also explain what all safety features are in a car and explains why its safer over others it also explains what all comes with a car or truck for everyone to understand even if you know about cars or not. I want to explain the safety features and also the features alone that have to do with the car or trucks body style or its length and all the other specifications that are within each car and truck.

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The very first thing that you want to look at when you are looking to buy a new car is its safety features. You want to look at all of the ways that this car will keep you safe and alert to the possible dangers that you may not be able to see or be aware of. Safety, crash ratings and more. After years of declining highway fatalities on U.S. roads, government data for the first nine months of 2012 show that deaths have increased somewhat over 2011. The reasons are not yet clear but the best defense on the road is to drive the safest car possible. Ideally its one that provides optimum protection while also helping the driver avoid collisions in the first place. This article starts by telling you all this so that you can then figure out what type of car you would want to drive after figuring out how safe it is so that you then buy a car that you want and then trust that it is as safe as it is possible. If you are buying a new car or a used car you need to know if one is safer than the other and in most cases its probably the newer car but sometimes you just cant tell and that is when you want to compare all sorts of cars so that you know what your best option is price wise and safety wise. (2014 Consumer Reports). There are several new advancements in technology that makes cars safer and easier for people to drive, which makes it safer as well some of these advancements are In this article it describes how different types of cars have all sorts of new systems and technological advancements that will help make cars safer and easier to drive. Some of the systems that have been put in theses cars are laser or radar-assisted cruise control. these systems use the throttle and braking to keep it a preset distance from the car in front of it. Some systems help

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parallel parking and they have also been doing research in radar, laser, and ultrasonic sensors to monitor the area around a vehicle as it moves. This way the car can continuously evaluate the driving situation to determine if the person at the wheel was paying attention. If the system found a potentially dangerous situation that the driver wasnt aware of, the car would then sound an alarm or otherwise to alert the driver. (2002 Yahoo! Internet Life). All of these advancements are just the beginning of what could be possible in just a few years from now. With all of the new smart cars and cars being smaller in several ways can also make them more maneuverable and easier to avoid accidents and the stronger the cars are and having all these new technological advancements in them would prevent several accidents from happening. Cars to buy: What I want to discuss is how we test cars for not only safety but we also test them to see what is better overall for us to own. How we test cars is a group of Independent consumer-product-testing organizations. They are devoted to ensuring the safety of others while they are in their cars. This group that buys their cars anonymously from dealers and test them which is different from the other reviewers that base their evaluations on free loaner cars that are hand picked by the automakers. Once they have the cars they drive them thousands of miles over several months, which compared to most other auto reviews only drive them a few weeks. The group has experienced automotive engineers and supporting staff that evaluates all the cars at their 327-acre auto test center in Connecticut and also on public roads, which range from freeways to twisty two

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lane roads. Then, the staff members take the cars to their homes and test them with their families and in the end each car undergoes more than 50 tests and evaluations (2014 Consumer Reports). This article mainly focused on the safety but also expressed how much testing goes into cars especially to make sure that the cars actually live up to the standards that they are supposedly said to be at. My second main article has a lot to do with what types of cars are reviewed and how to read those reviews because it is very important to know exactly what you are spending so much money on because cars are very expensive and you dont want to just buy a car and realize it was a huge mistake. Profiles, ratings, reviews, and specifications. - This article talks about recommended vehicles, ownership factors, and quick facts about several cars within each of these categories. (1) Cars are recommended above others and they earn the recommendation because vehicles must perform well in their testing; have average or better reliability; and perform adequately if included in safety tests Conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In addition, pickups and SUVs must not have tipped up in the governments rollover test. (2) Ownership factors talks about the reliability of how well a model is likely to hold up based on the latest annual auto survey. The satisfaction of a car is very important and they asked subscribers whether they would definitely buy or lease their particular vehicle again and a top score marked by a full red circle indicates that 80% or more of owners said they would do so. The lowest score represented by a full black circle indicates that less than 50% would do so. These results are based on three most recent model

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years unless the vehicle was redesigned. Owner cost is based on the five -year projected cost to own a vehicle, which combines depreciation, interest, insurance, sales tax, fuel, and maintenance/repair. The rating is comparable to almost all costs among the models of cars.

Key to forecasts

Better ------------- worse (3) Body style is the type of vehicle (sedan, coupe, etc.). Trim lines differ mainly in standard equipment, available options, and price a dash (-) indicates that only one trim is available. Base indicates that the lowest-price version has no special designation. Available cab types list for pickup trucks. Price is the range of base prices for all versions. The price is the manufactures suggested retail price (MSRP) without options or destination charge. An E indicates the price is estimated. Drive wheels notes model by (FWD), (RWD), (AWD), and (4WD). Seating is maximum number of belted seats. Engine transmission, Fuel recommends what type of engine will suit your needs. Version tested is the tested model and trim. CR mpg is our fuel mileage for models weve tested recently, based on a realistic mix of highway, country-road, and city driving. Acceleration 0-60 mph (measured in seconds) and braking from 60 mph on dry pavement (measured in feet) is from our test results (2014 Consumer Reports). This was one of my main articles to focus on because it had several parts to it

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that explains so much about cars for anyone to understand. It explains cars and the way that we can buy them by understanding them and knowing what we are doing is a very important thing to know. When I buy my first car I want to first know my situation then I want to know how safe the car is and then I want to compare it among several other cars and then I want to exactly what Im paying for and why Im paying that price. I want to get my moneys worth in a car and this article helps me by telling me and showing me statistics about cars and their reviews. There should be new and improved safety features as well as new and improved car specifications, body styles, and structural frames every year or two because we can never stop enhancing the vehicles that we drive. We need to do this because if cars continue to get faster and more available for some drivers to get and not be able to handle the cars would make the roads extremely dangerous and this is only one thing that could happen out of several different reasons why we should make our vehicles safer and stronger. With out us making improvements on our cars we could be putting more people at risk of being harmed or killed. There should be more restrictions on who can buy and drive certain cars that can reach speeds way beyond what is needed for everyday use. Why should an everyday car be able to reach a speed of over a 130mph or 160mph what purpose does this serve when the average speed limit never reaches past 70mph. I may not know a whole lot about cars and every way that they work but I think that we need to find a way to make our cars still be able to reach the speed of 100mph easily without it being a struggle or strain for the

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car but I think all of our cars should be limited to only going 100mph that way its still fast but it would make cars safer and if we also made cars stronger and more high tech this would also make them safer. The new technological advancements in cars are always changing and I think this is a very good thing in some ways I know that the radars and alarm systems that our in cars help you be more aware. I also think that there is some problems with some of the cruise control advancements because there are some instances where this is also an unsafe advancement if used in the wrong way and could possibly have drivers not paying attention as much as they should be, if they were driving they would have to be more aware because they are in total control. I would like to know what others think of these ideas that I have came up with and if anyone knows more about this subject then they would be able to have another view and possibly have similar questions just with more modified examples and statistics. I have talked about several ways of how safety is very important to me and to everyone, we all are afraid of being hurt or being killed and we all want to be safe and especially when we are driving. We all want to make sure we buy the best car available and in most if not all cases this should be about the cars safety and many people would agree with me especially if I was to ask a group of parents, their concern about safety may be more elaborate and all of them would want to have all the new technologies and safety features that a car has to offer especially if they have a child in their car below the age of 12. I do not have children but I have drove my girlfriends nephews and nieces and they are all under this age of 12 and the youngest being 2 and a half years old and when I

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drive them around I want to drive a hundred times better and safer than if I was alone not only do I care about their safety I also am the oldest I am the one who is responsible for any and all actions that may take place while I am driving and I truly dont know how safe my car is but I know one hundred percent that I will drive like I have the safest car out there because I need to be aware of everything around me and make sure nothing could possibly happen to those children. I know that I want the safest car and many others share this because there are a lot of people out there that drive like crazy and they can and probably will hurt or kill someone and if they hit someone. I want to know that the car has the right safety features to avoid most of the impact and if not I want to know that that car is strong and safe enough that if it gets hit extremely hard that those people in it will survive. I want a very high rate of survival and I know that the more tests and the more technological advancements that come up every year are paying off and this only will be of value if you do your research and make sure that the car that you buy is the safest that you can get at the time and I think if these cars get way over priced that they will need to be cheaper so that more people can afford them and this would help reduce and possibly stop almost all the possibilities of fatal accidents. My final question for you is, what car would you chose for the safety of a life?

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References:
Hansen, B. (2001, October 26). Auto safety. CQ Researcher, 11, 873-896. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/ How we test cars. (2014). Consumer Reports, 79(4), 4. Profiles. (2014). Consumer Reports, 79(4), 40-71. Butler, R. (2006). Sudden impact. Professional Engineering, 19(3), 33-35. Most & least expensive cars to own. (2014). Consumer Reports, 79(4), 6. Safety. (2014). Consumer Reports, 79(4), 72-76.

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McKnight, A. (2000). Too Old to Drive?. Issues In Science & Technology, 17(2), 63. Thinking About Safety. (2002). Yahoo! Internet Life, 8(6), 65. Valdes-Dapena, P. (2009). THE FUTURE of CAR SAFETY ...IS HERE. Money, 38(11), 114-117. MANY CARS DON'T PROTECT AGAINST WHIPLASH INJURIES. (2007). Consumer Reports, 72(8), 16-18.