My wife , who is currently in the market for a new car, and who has driven nothing but Volvos and BMWs, has suddenly announced that she has decided that she wants a Prius. This has come as a surprise, as she had previously been looking at new Volvos and Mercedes wagons. We have a number of Prius’s in our neighborhood and my wife says that she likes the “statement they makeâ€. I like the statement they make as well. However, my concern is the safety aspect of such a light and small vehicle. I know that the Prius has done well in the crash tests, but I was wondering if anybody here has had or known of anyone who has actually been in a fairly serious accident with their Prius and walked away or at least lived to talk about it. Has anybody been rear ended? If so how much of the potential whiplash problem was mitigated by Toyota’s whiplash injury lessening (WIL) system? I know that you can't really fairly compare when there is such a large weight disparity, but I just wanted to know if someone has actually had a real life experience with a Pries in an accident. I would really appreciate any input. Thanks in advance marty
How much does the volvo and bmw weigh? I was a little surprised to find the Prius packing in at about 3000 pounds. My F250 comes on the scale about 7800 pounds... I'd think the Volvo would come in closer to the 3000 than the 7800... How heavy are those? I ordered one with the stability control.. for what that's worth... Definately not a bmw...
yes it was ugly. There was another crash where 4 preteens driving drunk with out a license were hit by a 18 wheeler towing an oversize piece of earthmoviing equipment. The 18 wheeler T boned the Prius with side air bags. The three passengers out of five lived. They were wearing seat belts. It was in Texas about a year and a half ago try goggling it. This is a safe car. Check out the European crash tests with the side air bags.
My wife is a safety freak. Since this is online, I might need to visually emphasize that: SAFETY FREAK!! After reading the safety results from the U.S. and Europe, she stood 100% behind the Prius and is darned glad I bought it.
Safety-wise, if the safety cage holds under severe crash, airbags make most differences. I can't overemphasize the importance of side/curtain airbags for T-bone crash. However, if the safety cage collapses, no amount of airbags will save you. Airbags may do more harm than good in that situation. As small as a Prius is, its safety cage has been rienforced by use of super high-strength steel. http://www.worldautosteel.org/article2_042004.html In a crash that involves two parties, the lighter one will suffer more impact. A Prius, at 2900lb is on the lighter side. Volve and BMW also make vehicles with strong safety cages. No double about that. I bought my 540iA back in 1998 exactly for that reason (I could have had chosen a Lexus GS400 to avoid so many reliability problems I had with a BMW). It had the highest crash rating at that time. In many severe crashes, Volve and BMW owners could walk away from them. I have been brainwashed by the BMW magzine, in which owners reported their crash experiences.
Guys, Thanks for the links and pics. Very cool. I had no idea the car did that well. And to think I made a post doubting the semi thing (someone made a vague reference to it). Guess I'll have to retract that one. I tried googling that accident but didn't come up with anything that looked right. Anyone have a link to the story?
Hi Marty, you (and everyone at PriusChat) needs to see this info from Europe. It includes movies of crash tests and so much more. You may need to install some plugins for some videos. Prius Multimedia from Europe! Enjoy!
ACK! Firefox doesn't like that page. Javascript errors. It's working fine in IE. <_< man I'm glad I'm not a crashtest dummy (well, being in the band would've probably been OK)! Those crashes just made me cringe.
See this from the Insurance Institute. Prius ranks among the best - better than nearly every mid-size listed. Of course this is outcome based so reflects driver behavior too - perhaps Prius drivers are safer, the car is safer, or the car makes drivers drive more safely. http://www.iihs.org/brochures/ictl/pdf/ictl_0905.pdf
8? I count 6: Front driver/passenger, side seat driver/passenger, side curtain driver/passenger. I suppose since the curtain goes all the way to the back to protect the rear passengers one might count each as 2.
Thanks for the link, TimBikes. Their earlier report (including the 2001-2003 Prius) said injury 65, collision 104, and theft 24. So the report you link shows a noticeably smaller number for collision (now 74). Happy to see (or presume) that Prius drivers are doing better! As I've said before, the salvaged parts market is now adequately supplied with spare parts, so you should all stop totaling your cars now. Please?
Do be sure to get one of the options packages that includes all the optional air bags. Air bags should never be optional on any car. But at least on the '04 and '05 some options packages lacked the side air bags. I don't know about the '06. Get all the air bags and you have a very safe car. VSC also was (is?) an option. Get VSC if you'll ever drive in slippery conditions. It's another safety feature. I had a couple of emergency stops on ice, and boy, was that thing ever steady!
