Air bags, safty, SUVs and today's NY Times - low Audi content

[Xudong <xudong@prismsolutions.com>]

Guys (and Gals?),

I just read a very disturbing article in today's NY Times regarding the
danger that SUV may pose
to cars. It looks like in a crash between a car and a light truck/SUV,
the car doesn't stand a chance. 
Part of this is due to weight difference, and part of it the height
difference. 

Safty is one of the big reason that I have an Audi A6, and not the
Passat or A4, but I wonder now how
safe it really is in the US where there are lots of trucks. Does any
know how good Audi's are regarding
side impact protection?

The article is very long, so I can only provide some summary here:

. An Chrysler Concorde was T boned by a Chevy Suburban. The Concorde is
pushed 50 feet into a tree,
driver died, passenger seriously hurt. Not much happened to the
Suburban. 
(The concorde is a big car, 3300lbs. But it look completely distroyed
because the the Suburban is
very tall)

. in 93 the German equivalent of AAA performed a crash test involving a
near head on collision between
a VW Golf and a Nissan SUV at 31mph. The result? The Nissan's front
grill is now at where the Golf's
dash use to be. Head injury reading for the dummy in the Golf is 3177
(1000 considered fatal).

. If you hit a Suburban in an Accord, you are 13 times more likely to
die.

. Some accident investigator, after seeing so many accidents, now drives
a SUV and says "SUVs are great
for the people who have them"

All I can say is, drive carefully out there and watch out for those SUVs
and light trucks.

Xudong