Current Standard Car and SUV Safety Features

While it is fun to purchase a car that gives a great impression and feels great to drive, you might also want to consider taking a look at the safety features of the car just to make sure the one you’re thinking about buying will protect you too. Let’s face it, even though you’re the most experienced driver on the road, accidents can and do occur. So you may want to consider a car or SUV that not only looks good but also has the features it takes to keep you safe behind the wheel.

Evaluating a Car or SUV for Safety

Many vehicle manufacturers understand that customers will reward then with their loyalty if they offer them with cars that meet or exceed central safety standards. But as a consumer, how can you decide if a car provides you that added cushion of safety?

Maybe the two most significant considerations or questions you might want to ask yourself include:

What safety aspect does this car or SUV have that will help me prevent an accident in the first place?

How does this vehicle protect me in the event of a crash?

Automobile Safety Features

In the following sections, we are going to share with you some of the most important safety features offered in today’s cars. This list is derived from facts available by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA, which is an organization of the Department of Transportation.

• Anti Lock Brakes or ABS

The most important function of anti-lock brakes is to avoid a car’s wheels from locking during panic braking. By allowing the car or SUV to slow in a more controlled manner, the driver can often maintain better steering control and prevent an accident. There is a bit of physics behind ABS design too. But let’s avoid the debate of still friction and sum up this point by saying that ABS allow cars to slow down faster than does “skidding.”

All new cars sold these days have ABS have four-wheel anti-lock breaks. Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and light truck are sold with either two-wheel (rear wheels) or four-wheel ABS.

• Electronic Stability Control or ESC

Electronic Stability Control is considered to be of assistance to drivers in maintaining control of their cars or SUVs during times of intense steering maneuvers. ESC assists by preventing a car or SUV from spinning out by continuously monitoring and applying braking force to one or more wheels as needed.

• Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS)

Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems utilize a caution or warning light on the dashboard to alert the driver when a tire is significantly under-inflated. Tires in this case are much more than tire failure (a blow out). The standard for this caution to signal is when the tire pressure is 25% below the tire manufacturer’s suggested inflation pressure.

For example, if the tire is supposed to be inflated to 30 psi of pressure, the TPMS will alert the driver when the tire pressure drops below 22.5 psi. Each and every car or SUV manufactured after September 1, 2007 are needed to have TPMS.

• Daytime Running Lights or DRL

Daytime Running Lights turn on the car’s headlights whenever you like the vehicle is being driven. By turning on the headlights - even in the hours of daylight - the ability of other drivers to see your car is greatly improved.

• Seat Belts / Safety Belts

Seat belts are regarded as the single most essential safety feature in your car. These belts are intended to keep you in your seat, which helps you to avoid hitting the steering wheel, dashboard or windshield. When buying a car or SUV, sit in the vehicle and put on the seat belt. Check to make sure the fit is comfortable. Many cars nowadays offer a variety of ways to adjust the seat belt to achieve a better fit.

All new cars and SUVs are needed to give a caution light and audible signal that lasts for at least eight second if the driver does not have a seat belt slotted in.

• Air Bags

The original air bags installed in cars were placed in the steering wheel and they were considered to protect the driver. The accomplishment of air bags in defending passengers has shown the way to their use in several new ways.

Frontal Air Bags

Frontal air bags are especially for drivers and passengers have been standard equipment in all cars since the model year 1998. These bags are designed to prevent the driver or front seat passenger from striking the windshield, dashboard or steering wheel. Frontal air bags are generally hidden in the steering wheel and / or the control board itself.

Advanced Air Bag Systems

By September 1, 2006, all new vehicles were considered necessary to be equipped with advanced air bag systems. This highly developed system is intended to organize air bags in such a way as to equilibrium the protection of the passenger with the force by which the bag is set out. The highly developed system can help defend some adults, and particularly small children, from the harmful affects of an air bag that sets off with too much force.

Air Bag On / Off Switches

Nearly all vehicles that do not have a rear seat now include an on / off switch that can deactivate a frontal air bag. For example, an on / off switch might be commonly found in pick up trucks allowing the passenger side air bag to be turned off when transporting a small child.

Side Air Bags

Side air bags are considered to provide additional passenger safety from side impact crash or accident. These types of bags take several forms:

Curtains / Tubular - these air bags set out downward from the car’s roof.

Combination - these air bags set out upward from the seat back and provide both head and chest safety.

Side Air Bag Out of Position Test

There has been a latest progress in the test side air bags for safety when a passenger is out of position - such as a child or adult sleeping with their head resting on the inside of a car’s door. If the car or SUV has passed a series of examinations for safety under these circumstances, it will be noted in the car’s safety literature.

Rollover Air Bags

Rollover air bags are intended to keep passengers inside a vehicle when an unusual rollover sensor activates. These rollover air bags are side air bags that execute this safety function by staying puffed up for a longer period of time.

• Vehicle Weight

The final car or SUV safety feature has to do with the vehicle’s weight. Once more this has to do with physics (essentially quite a bit of a car’s performance can be explained by physics) but the rule of thumb here is that heavier vehicles provide passengers a greater level of safety. But this rule of thumb comes with one of those warnings.

Statistically, a number of of the heavier vehicles on the road nowadays are trucks and SUVs. Because of the characteristic dimensions of SUVs, its center of gravity is higher off the ground matched up to to a passenger car. This makes SUVs more prone to rolling over.

So while an SUV offers passengers the benefit of being a heavier vehicle, this advantage can be invalid by their tendency to roll over.

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