Big Is Beautiful

By Author: Marcus Stalder
Total Articles: 491
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The world is often confusing, full of contradictory causes and effects. Let's take the current controversy as to whether we are going through a period of climate change (or global warming, if you prefer). If the doom sayers have the right of it, the more gas we burn in our vehicles, the more unbalanced the atmosphere and so the faster the rate of change. If the deniers are in the right, global warming is one of the biggest urban myths of all time and the fact we are throwing tons of carbon into our atmosphere to generate power and drive around makes not a bit of difference. There's not much in between these two extreme camps so the lawmakers have been pushing laws to slowly increase the fuel performance of vehicles while refusing to increase the tax on gas. This gives the manufacturers years to introduce efficient models and does not put pressure on people to choose more fuel efficient vehicles.

This would be OK if the rest of the world was equally laid back in the face of possible danger. But many other countries believe in climate change and so have used the market to persuade manufacturers to produce physically smaller, ...
... more fuel-efficient vehicles. Some of these modern minis are capable of 40 and 50 miles to the gallon which is rather stunning when you think about some of the trucks and SUVs that struggle to do more than 10. Again, this would be OK if all these markets were closed, but the modern world is based on free trade. This pitches these smaller cars into the US market. Not surprisingly, the larger US models are rejected as environmentally unacceptable in the foreign markets. The consumer decides these things. And so it is that many Americans have been tempted to buy one of these smaller vehicles by reduced running costs.

Vehicles are designed to match the road conditions in their home markets. So when it comes to safety features like the height of bumpers and the placement of areas of the bodywork to deform in the event of a collision, all the vehicles tend to match up. But when you suddenly put a European mini up against a truck from Detroit, there's a failure of communication as the US bumper hits the smaller vehicle above its designed protection zones. The result is more catastrophic damage and more injuries to the people inside.

So before you buy, have a very careful look at the crash test results for imported vehicles. They can be as cheap to buy and cost a lot less to run, but the insurance premiums for these smaller cars are often higher than for the larger vehicles. Indeed, sometimes, the really cheap auto insurance comes from driving the modern equivalent of an armored troop carrier. That way, you can crash into more or less any other vehicle on the road and walk away without a scratch (although the paintwork may need some attention). So pay particular attention when you get the auto insurance quotes before buying. Sometimes you lose what you save on fuel by higher premiums.
ople inside.