| SeattleLion |
06-09-2011 03:12 PM |
It seems that there are a couple of themes here:
The 350, in particular, is bought by inexperienced or reckless drivers. Ok, maybe that is true. However as pointed out, Mustangs are in a similar price bracket and are way safer in terms of both fatalities and insurance claims for collision, etc. So, if drivers are to blame, are we claiming that the 350 is a magnet for people prone to overdrive their skills?
The design is flawed. This is very interesting. Both the 350 and 370 are true rear wheel driven sports cars. While many complain about the VDC, it is way less aggressive than stability controls on other cars. The 370 sport (not sure about base) comes equipped with summer tires. These tires are less-than-sticky below 50 deg F and not incredible on very wet surfaces. Perhaps that contributes to the problem. I never drove a 350, but my 370 is not tail happy at all and is very difficult to drive into understeer with the VDC on. I tried hard to make it understeer when I took HPD school a couple of months ago. I had to push to 60mph before I could get it to slip. Even then, it recovered almost instantly.
Most of us have been driving 370's for a while. Nobody on this thread pointed out any obvious safety issues (at least so far). There has to be a reason for the 350 ending up as the car with the most fatalities per million registered vehicles. The 370 is certainly an improvement over the 350, but it is also smaller and more powerful. I've noticed that SUV's have a habit of trying to cross into my lane when they are right next to me. It's happened at least 5 times in the 9 months I have had my Z. Could it be that blind spot crashes on freeways is the killer? Anyone notice any consistent issues that could cause a fatal crash?
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