Small is safe

Chad Bryan, Gleaner Writer

An article by consumer advice editor Ronald Montoya on the website edmunds.com suggests smaller cars would not be as safe as larger ones, which have longer bonnets and bigger crush zones, which provide extra protection in frontal crashes.

Stuart Newstead, leader of the Used Car Safety ratings project at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, also believes that small cars are not safe in crashes.

However, small cars are less expensive to purchase, easier to park and get better fuel economy than larger ones. And, depending on the manufacturer, smaller cars are now just as well equipped as larger ones to maximise passenger safety.

Popular used small cars on the Jamaican market include the Honda Fit, Toyota Passo/Daihatsu Boon, Toyota Vitz, Nissan Note and Nissan March. Popular small new cars are the Kia Picanto, Ford Focus and Suzuki Swift, among others.

However, they are on the road with large vehicles, including SUV behemoths that outweigh small cars many times over.

President of the Jamaica Used Car Dealers Association, Lynvalle Hamilton, said smaller cars are as safe as any other vehicle. Safety, he said, depends not only on size, but the car's features.

"When we're speaking of safety, it's not necessarily the size. It depends on the safety features. Smaller vehicles are pretty safe," Hamilton said.

Hamilton noted that most customers tend to have safety concerns about small cars and they enquire about the features. This affects the demand for small cars.

Concerns

"Yes, customers have potential safety concerns. A lot of them will enquire about the number of airbags, the electronic stability control, fog lamps and traction control. It will also affect demand for those who are safety conscious," he said.

Hamilton pointed out that the Honda Fit is the number-one small car because of its high-qualitysafety features. He also said that larger car-safety features can be fitted on a smaller car.

In his online article, Montoya said the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety in the United States pointed out that the key to a car's safety is the ability to keep passengers alive during a crash. To ensure this, factors such as the car's weight and its resistance to rolling over are paramount. Although small cars tend not to roll over easily, they lack weight and, up until recently, were less likely to have advanced safety features like electronic stability control (ESC) or full side airbags, the website said. As of 2012, these features are now required standard equipment.

Kent LaCroix, who heads the new car dealers organisation, the Automobile Dealers Association, said smaller cars are as safe as any other size vehicle. "There is no situation where one is not safe. They have to be safe based on the Island Traffic Authority regulations," he said.

He acknowledged that there are customers who are concerned about safety elements. "All new cars have a minimum safety requirement. Customers ask about the safety elements when they are purchasing, but it all depends on what they expect in a particular vehicle. All cars are tested. They go through rigorous safety tests before sending them out of the factory," LaCroix said.