This is being widely circulated right now, but it's well worth reading: Malcolm Gladwell on SUVs.
In a thirty-five-m.p.h. crash test, for instance, the driver of a Cadillac Escalade--the G.M. counterpart to the Lincoln Navigator--has a sixteen-per-cent chance of a life-threatening head injury, a twenty-per-cent chance of a life-threatening chest injury, and a thirty-five-per-cent chance of a leg injury. The same numbers in a Ford Windstar minivan--a vehicle engineered from the ground up, as opposed to simply being bolted onto a pickup-truck frame--are, respectively, two per cent, four per cent, and one per cent.
Thats pretty scary. 35 mph is not fast at all. So what is it about these cars?
Thats pretty scary. 35 mph is not fast at all. So what is it about these cars?