Re: [FWDLK] FW: [FWDLK] All this late model and future discussion...

It's not the SUV's,pick-up trucks,minivans,ect. that's the problem,it's the drivers.This is (or was before the last 2 elections) a free country,if someone wants a pick-up truck they buy a pick-up truck,period,they have been around for 100 years,just not quite as popular as they are now. If that's the case our 4,000 pound FL cars and all old boats with poor brakes and poor handling characteristics should be illegal too.The problem is also that cars that meet federal safety standards (and some of these imports I feel shouldn't,I'm a body man,I've seen what the Japanese call a side impact beam,they're made of less steel than the interior moldings on my '58 Fury) are for 60 MPH crashes,not 90 MPH crashes with big trucks.And every accident is different so predicting exactly how a vehicle will be hit is impossible for the designers.I don't believe in these "crash ratings" new cars get,I think payoffs and advertising dollars decide the "Car of the Year",the "safest car in a frontal crash",ect. There is noooooo way these cars that win can,I've seen how the fold when they get hit,I've seen the structures of these cars,to me it's all BS. Give me a full size (well they're mid size now,but are called full size) American car and I feel safer,and with today's technology 30 MPG out of a bigger car is fine with me. The way people drive nowadays is also a good reason to drive a big car or truck,it seems there just aren't enough police to control the speeders or they just don't care,either way I wouldn't be caught dead (no pun intended) in an import or compact car. Then again they are safer than my Model T roadster and I put 5000 miles on it last year,I just really watch what is going on around me(mirrors,try to look in both directions as I enter an intersection,ect.).