Didja' ever?

[jmrtsus]

Didja' ever get asked a question about your car that flabbergasted you? I was at a bakery the other day and an older lady ask if the small white car was mine. Thinking she just put the first flaw in the body work on my '16 I said yes and waited for the bad news. The she said "Over there (while pointing to a compact car, larger that my FiFi) is a car I just picked up a rental agency and was worried about it." Then she floored me with the question, "Do you actually drive your little car on the interstate, is it safe?" I was stunned, stunned I say! Her eyes got as big as a saucer when I told her I put between 3 and 8 thousand miles every year of interstate driving on my car. I told her my first car, a '59 Fiat 600D was even smaller and she was shocked.
I have in my life had many people that questioned my love of smaller cars and had the same impression that small cars were unsafe. I have never had an at fault accident in my life, had a hit and run but they never caught the guy. I have also been fortunate in that I avoided 2 major accidents due to the braking and handling on my "small" cars in my life. Does anyone else get this reaction from people that think a monster SUV is the safest vehicle around with their shaky brakes and handling plus rollover issues? This poor woman was actually afraid of driving on the interstate in a compact car.
My son was hit and pushed off the interstate at 75 mile per hour in a small Mitsubishi Mirage, spinning around as it was bouncing off an Armco barrier turning his rectangular car into an oval with all 4 corner bashed in, car was totaled and he he had to kick the door open to get out unscathed. People on the interstate were rushing to assist him fearing the worse as they watched him get out and start gathering his possessions from the car. Safe? Hell yes!

Some people just cannot understand my obsession with smaller cars. Have you guys had this reaction?

 

[M-Sport fan]

It is part of the mentality in this land that ONLY an effing road tank is safe to drive, (and that one must keep up with the 'arms race', and drive something at least as huge as everyone else, or die!) which has helped aid and abet the steady obliteration of ALL cars (not just sport compacts and hot hatches) due to the buying public's 'opinion'.
It is also responsible for the added size and heft of even the few smaller rides left on the market here.

That, and the bullshit 'macho' attitudes in this country that smaller cars (yup, even the high performance/'sporty' ones) are much more 'effeminate' and not as 'manly' as big azz, coal rollin' trucks, even if one does not need the latter for their occupation, or business reasons.

 

[Geebs]

My wife and son were t-boned in her Nissan versa. The impact was on the passenger side where my son was sitting and luckily the only injuries were brush burns from the side curtain and knee area airbags!! Say what they want about small cars, I'll always be thankful to that little versa, it did it's job and kept them both safe!!

 

[jmrtsus]

We bitch about the weight gain on our cars but the safety factor is so much better now.