National
Motorists
Association

Relearning The Same Lesson, Over And Over And…

By James Baxter, NMA President

Having gone through another siege of “unintended acceleration” hyperbole, and with the same outcome (the purported victims had their foot on the gas pedal instead of the brake) it would seem that this subject has been well vetted. Don’t bet on it. Too many parasites are waiting in the bushes hoping for a sympathetic victim or horrendous crash where the finger of blame will be pointed at a car that couldn’t be stopped.

These ethically challenged opportunists range from self-serving attorneys to government agencies. For example, in the current debacle involving Toyota and rogue floor mats, NHTSA turned its own ineptitude into an excuse to go to Congress to seek more money.

They want Congress to force the auto makers to add $9 to the cost of every new car that would then be given to NHTSA. Guess who really pays the nine bucks.

This is not to say that new technology or a simple component flaw would never cause unintended acceleration, or some other unexpected vehicle gyration. But instead of creating a new sci-fi bogeyman why not first discount the factor that caused this problem the last four times it cropped up?

Here’s what NHTSA knows, or should know about unintended acceleration:

All past investigations have shown that driver error, usually, mistakenly, pushing on the accelerator thinking it is the brake pedal, is the pre-eminent cause of unintended acceleration.

The brakes in modern vehicles can overpower the engine and stop a vehicle even when the engine is at full song. The ignition key will still shut off an engine, even one with its own mind. Clutches and neutral gears will disengage the engine from the wheels, regardless of the floor mat location. And finally, what people say, in fact what they vehemently believe is often wrong.

Given that set of facts, why was the official knee jerk reaction at NHTSA to look for gremlins in the electronic throttle systems?

After all the tantrums, accusations, and public crucifixion of Toyota they find “the throttle was wide open and the brakes were not applied.”

Fast Lanes For Better Drivers?

By Eric Peters, Automotive Columnist

Is anyone happy with the way our traffic system works?

We have what you might call a least common denominator, “one size fits all” licensing system that arguably serves no one well.

Example:

Drivers with experience and above-average skill (demonstrated by passing a more difficult driving test, or having successfully earned a certificate from a high-performance driving school such as Bondurant or Skip Barber, etc.) could probably be trusted to drive considerably faster than currently posted maximum lawful speeds of 70-75 mph (which is what speed limits were circa 1970) without endangering themselves or others.

In practice, of course, they already do.

But despite their ability to drive faster safely, they’re lumped in with the least competent via dumbed-down speed limits that put them in almost constant jeopardy of being radar-trapped into a $150 piece of payin’ paper.

On the flip side, marginal and outright incompetent drivers are not treated as such by the system. Jut the opposite. They are often rewarded — or at least, encouraged to think they are “good drivers” by dint of the fact that they don’t “speed.”

That they often tailgate, wander across the double yellow, blow through red lights — and so on — hardly seems to matter since for the most part, these offenses are not the focus of traffic safety enforcement. “Speeding” is the major no-no, even though driving faster than a number painted on a sign may have no bearing whatever on how safely (or not) you happen to be driving.

Since so little is expected of all drivers, the general level of skill is very low. This almost certainly makes it less safe out there than it ought to be — and easily could be.

But how to reconcile the good drivers with the bad ones — or at least, to not punish the good drivers just because they transgress against laws intended for the benefit of the not-so-good drivers?

A tiered system of licensing — with “fast lanes” on highways set aside for those who have passed more demanding proficiency requirements — could make driving safer and more pleasant for everyone. Such a system exists already in countries like Germany and the results have been hard to argue with: Germany enjoys a generally higher average skill level for its drivers (because getting a license over there is not an easy thing, as it is here) and an accident/fatality rate that is better than ours, despite often much faster rates of travel.

In a tiered system, there are two categories of driver’s license: The Basic and the Expert (with a Learner’s for teenaged/first-time drivers).

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Fun With NHTSA Stats: The Safest/Most Dangerous Days To Drive

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has some interesting stats available to the public through their Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

One of the statistics they keep is the number of crashes on each day of the year. We decided it would be interesting to see which days had the most accidents and which days had the lowest number of crashes across the country.

Without further ado, here are the fifteen days with the most accidents on average from 1999-2008 (ten years):

Most Accidents

1. January 1   132.1 average crashes
2. July 4   131.5 average crashes
3. July 3   126.3 average crashes
4. August 3   123.3 average crashes
5. September 2   122.7 average crashes
6. September 1   120.9 average crashes
7. August 6   120.8 average crashes
8. September 22   120.6 average crashes
9. July 2   120.4 average crashes
10. October 14   119.7 average crashes
11. August 4   119.6 average crashes
12. August 31   119.5 average crashes
13. June 30   119.2 average crashes
14. July 15   118.4 average crashes
15. August 11   118.3 average crashes

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Is Your Old Car A Classic – Or Just A Used Car?

By Eric Peters, Automotive Columnist

Is that nicely preserved ’88 Buick in your garage a “classic ” — or just another old car?

The answer depends on who you ask.

Most states won’t issue a “classic” (or “antique”) vehicle license plate and registration until a vehicle is at least 21 years old. Some old car clubs (such as the Antique Automobile Club of America) consider the passage of 25-30 years the absolute minimum before a car transitions from being an old car to an antique.

The slightly snootier Classic Car Club of America goes even further. This group, which claims to have been the first to use the term “classic car,” refuses to acknowledge or accept any car built after the year 1948 — when mass-produced welded and stamped panels began to replace the more time-intensive, bolt-on/partial (or fully) hand-built processes that had been the norm previously.

CCCA regards only the coach-built cars of the 1920s and ’30s – V-16 Cadillacs, Bugattis, Auburns, Duesenbergs, Cords, etc. — as worthy, although an occasional exception is made for low-production, historically significant machines built later.

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