I never, ever thought of this - till I witnessed it first hand today!! I wanted to rush home and write about this.
Not many (like me) actually think about the fact that if a car's agile, i.e. responsive it matters , w.r.t. safety.
Today, in NJ RT-27, which has 2 lanes and many, many side lanes I was cruising along behind a RAV4 and behind me almost tailgating me a Porche Cayenne. Suddenly a car entered our lanes realized its mistake and swerved. From its passenger window flew bang on front of the RAV4 - the other car owner's bloody dog!! Between us 3 cars there was about 1 car length each. The RAV4 - it was immediately noticeable turned but slowly and rammed into the sidewalk, saving the dog.
I braked - cut left and simultaneously the Porsche also (most probably). In a nutshell, both of our cars reacted to this in sync, immediately and gracefully flew past the RAV4, the crouched shivering dog and a screaming (inside) lady of the dog owner's car!! Crossed all of them and gracefully stopped AFTER the intersection.
In all of this - I realized having car which reacts QUICKLY to steering changes, speed changes - matters, matters a LOT. Everywhere we end up reading about CX-5 responsiveness w.r.t. over-taking, etc. but that same responsiveness also helps in crash avoidance! Proof in point: The Porsche behind me (I later found out) has all the extras like torque vectoring, etc. and reacted exactly like my CX-5 and Porsche is known for it agility!
In comparison, the RAV4 I could literally see its rear wheels turning, stability kicking in and the LOOOONNGGG curve ratio, slow response caused it to crash into something (sidewalk).
The dog's alive and safe. No injuries to anyone.
A quick question : This leads me to believe, CX-5 has a good and TIGHT turn ratio I think, in comparison to other comparable cars? Dunno.
Not many (like me) actually think about the fact that if a car's agile, i.e. responsive it matters , w.r.t. safety.
Today, in NJ RT-27, which has 2 lanes and many, many side lanes I was cruising along behind a RAV4 and behind me almost tailgating me a Porche Cayenne. Suddenly a car entered our lanes realized its mistake and swerved. From its passenger window flew bang on front of the RAV4 - the other car owner's bloody dog!! Between us 3 cars there was about 1 car length each. The RAV4 - it was immediately noticeable turned but slowly and rammed into the sidewalk, saving the dog.
I braked - cut left and simultaneously the Porsche also (most probably). In a nutshell, both of our cars reacted to this in sync, immediately and gracefully flew past the RAV4, the crouched shivering dog and a screaming (inside) lady of the dog owner's car!! Crossed all of them and gracefully stopped AFTER the intersection.
In all of this - I realized having car which reacts QUICKLY to steering changes, speed changes - matters, matters a LOT. Everywhere we end up reading about CX-5 responsiveness w.r.t. over-taking, etc. but that same responsiveness also helps in crash avoidance! Proof in point: The Porsche behind me (I later found out) has all the extras like torque vectoring, etc. and reacted exactly like my CX-5 and Porsche is known for it agility!
In comparison, the RAV4 I could literally see its rear wheels turning, stability kicking in and the LOOOONNGGG curve ratio, slow response caused it to crash into something (sidewalk).
The dog's alive and safe. No injuries to anyone.
A quick question : This leads me to believe, CX-5 has a good and TIGHT turn ratio I think, in comparison to other comparable cars? Dunno.