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Originally Posted by Steiner
Some old man with his head up his ass plowed in to my 2002 Spec V w/less than 20,000 miles. Except for some minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises I'm OK (thanks primarily to the side airbags), but the car is totalled. It's 110% his fault, so it will be time to start looking for a new car again as soon as the crooks at his insurance get things finalized.
I'm posting here because I'm hoping some folks here might be able to give me some 1st hand experience because I've now narrowed my search down to 2 different cars...the SRT-4 and the WRX....
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I'm gonna leave the mechanical and speed aspects to others and focus on safety. I know, everyone says, "You don't buy a car to crash it," but as I know, and you just found out, even the best drivers get run into by the worst from time to time. Happened to me twice already.
You also already found out the benefit of side airbags. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety just released a report today, finding that head-protection airbags cut driver death by 45% in side collisions. Make SURE you buy another car with this feature.
Now, of the cars you mentioned, the Neon got Marginal in the IIHS's test. To put that in perspective, in the Small Cars class, only two cars did worse: A Hyundai, and a Kia. Here are the results:
http://www.hwysafety.org/vehicle_rat...html/99007.htm
The WRX on the other hand..correct me if I'm wrong, but this is based on the Impreza. The
Impreza is in the same class of vehicles and is rated a "Best Pick" for frontal-crash safety. None of the cars in this class have been tested for side-impacts yet. Any case, EVERY car that Subaru makes is a "Best Pick" - what does that tell you?
Which car would you rather be in when the next old man drives out in front of you:
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