thrifiddytt

Nice kid. but c'mon look at those eyes, when she says "Daddy buy me a car?" You're gonna get suckered and break the bank. Some how this happened to my sisters in my family getting sweet cars yet I ended up with a $400 deal.

Brandon@Forged

Just wanted to add that just say a 2000 Honda Civic 2-door has a 2-star side-impact safety rating, while the 350Z has a five-star side-impact safety rating...and the 350Z has a five-start roll over safety rating. They did not test the rollover rating on the Civic.

I wouldn't be arguing that the Civic is safer, the more you pay for a car, generally, the safer it is going to be.

And I agree with someone else, just because the Civic doesn't get you to a high-speed as fast as the 350Z...it does do it, and it isn't going to make a difference if you were accelerating faster or not when you hit whatever you hit. If you're going 50mph, you're going 50mph, i'd rather be in the 350Z when I wreck than the Civic.

And I also agree, not a good idea to get them a bigger vehicle, they may survive (though they were the idiots that made the wreck happen in the first place) in a crash/wreck while the kid in the Civic is dead.

This isn't a discussion of what is safe for who, this is about the thread starter complaining about life.

Scott n Houston

haha. You're right. It will be very difficult to resist those eyes at times.

But for her safety, I won't cave!

tacomaboy

Cool.. if you want to argue that a Civic is less safe than a Z, and can manage the same speeds, then so be it. Let others judge you for that (IMO its flat out wrong). And I dont know where you get your info, but the 01 Civic has a 5 star rating: http://world.honda.com/news/2000/c001121.html

But I was mainly responding to your insinuation that I was biased or prejudiced. Going 50MPH in a 350Z is fine and dandy... but the truth of the matter is that most teenagers would take that Z straight to 156 as soon as they could. And with the little experience they have driving... thats it. Toast, and they will take a family with them. It happens alot, why do you think teens are so expensive to insure?

And as for big vs fast cars:

KE = 1/2 mv^2

This means that as speed doubles, Kinetic Energy quadruples.

As mass doubles, KE only doubles.

So a teen having a heavy car is not NEARLY as bad as them havign a fa
st one. Get it?


Oh.. http://motortrend.com/buyersguide/pr.../112_0309_pre/

00 Civic is four star rated

Scott n Houston

Also remember, if your <18 child wipes someone else out, it comes from your pocket!

That's a huge reason for me to not want my kid to have a fast car.

tacomaboy

Hmm.. and I will set up a mild straw man argument, but only because its an excellent analogy.

Would you give a 3 year old a steak knife to eat his food or a plastic spoon?

The plastic spoon of course. Why? Because they are not old enough (experienced, and mature) to handle a sharp knife, and they WILL cut themselves.

Does this make you predjudiced againt 3 year olds? Heck no! It just makes you smart for understanding that some things take time to learn how to use properly.

300HP takes time to learn how to use properly. Plain and simple.

tacomaboy

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/teenmvh.htm

there you have it.




Teen Drivers: Fact Sheet


Overview

Two out of five deaths among U.S. teens are the result of a motor vehicle crash (IIHS 2003).
# In 2001, more than 4,700 teens ages 16 to 19 died of injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes (CDC 2003).

# The risk for motor vehicle crashes is higher among 16- to 19-year-olds than among any other age group. In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely than older drivers to crash (NHTSA 2002).

# Teenagers represented 10% of the U.S. population in 2000 and accounted for 14% of all motor vehicle–related deaths (IIHS 2003).

# The presence of teen passengers increases the crash risk for unsupervised teen drivers; the risk increases with the number of teen passengers (Chen 2000).

End of discussion. Teens dont need 300HP

Brandon@Forged

Here's where I got my info: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testing/ncap/Index2.cfm

A .gov site.

You keep bringing up that teens are expensive to insure, I already stated my position on this earlier.

I also don't agree with that, you will most likely not have the room to do that. Your tail-end will swing out one day, before you'll get on a road that you can do 156mph.

Also, according to Newton's laws of motion, a heavier vehicle is going to be harder to stop at a given speed than a lighter vehicle.

Almost any car after '98 (random year) will do 100mph, i'd rather be a in a sports car that has a good traction control and vehicle dynamic control to be able to put pressure on the brakes needed to halt the car faster and more precise.

Brandon@Forged

The 3rd statement is very interesting, only 14% of ALL vehicle-related deaths were caused by teens.

I also like statement 4, less passengers=less distractions, at least in the Z you would only have room for one other person.

We can go on and on, and still end up disagreeing, so, thread closed. I see no reason for this to continue, the thread starter was just complaining about life and now it's ventured way off topic.