Yes! I use to do that. And, along with teaching my boys to drive stick, I would do it again, but alas, I live in Florida, so unless a new ice age comes that won’t happen.

dean:
“So the headline is not quite correct. Safety technology doesn’t make cars unsafe, it makes the drivers unsafe.”

I agree 100%

The problem is measuring risk homeostasis. I know of no controlled testing environment for RH but if anybody does, I would appreciate their sharing it with us.

The other week, I was at a traffic safety conference where the question was asked: all this stuff is nice and welcome, but what about compensatory risk behavior? The manager of the event replied: “Yes, exactly. Actually, we should arrange a conference on that very topic”.

Regarding that hoary steel spike on the steering wheel, would you really have that in place of an airbag if some idiot decides to pull out in front of your car at the last second? Or are you supposed to drive at 10 mph so you can stop in time?

Same goes for cable-actuated brakes on the rear axle (only) like the Model A Ford.

Cars have too many electronic nannies. When I was [insert age] in the [70s|80s] I drove a [name of old unsafe car] and I didn’t have [ABS|ESP|disc brakes] and I learned [to drive properly|not crash]. Cars today [have no soul|have too many gadgets|are not built like they used to].

I propose taking it one step further: anyone who drives an automatic car simply isn’t a safe driver. They can fall asleep at the wheel with a foot on the accelerator while the slushbox happily changes gears for them to achieve an even higher speed.

By the way, people like to beat-up the Nissan Sentra (2000-2006) and the new model. They are very good cars, and a very good value for the price. I would take one over the Cobalt, Focus, Dodge, and Kia. I would rate it equally to the Corrolla and Elantra. And slightly below the Mazda 3(which still uses a timing belt and not a timing chain) and of course the 1st in class Honda Civic.(which is priced too high, and the dealers won’t negotiate very much.)

So the headline is not quite correct. Safety technology doesn’t make cars unsafe, it makes the drivers unsafe.

The steel spike in the steering column would no doubt affect driver behaviour, although for the sake of emergency responders I wouldn’t advocate it.

My dad had a Chevette in the early 80s, in Buffalo of all places. He got around fine, as did I (even during snowstorms!) when I had to borrow the thing while staying with them at holidays. I’m pretty sure he had winter tires too. Plus the manual shifter helped a lot. And it didn’t hurt that the roadcrews in Upstate NY did a great job.

Forget the big V8 non-ABS sedans. Put those noobs in Chevettes. If you can make it through a sloppy winter without getting yourself killed in one of those you can handle anything else on the road.

My teenage experience with a Chevette was quite different, with my dad being smart enough to put studded winter tires on it!

I’m not looking forward to the day when I can no longer buy a new car without any nannies. I’ve never had a situation where I wanted to allow my car to change the way I want to drive it. I felt like putting my fist through the dash when the rental Highlander I drove decided it knew more about driving in snow than I. The traction control (or stability control, or whatever) button doesn’t actually do anything in that vehicle. On is on, and off is on.

Everyone should learn to drive in snowy ice with a 1981 Chevy Caprice or equivalent. It would make better drivers out of 80% of the yahoo’s on the road.

I’ll second that. I learned to drive in the snow in a ‘78 Chevy Malibu wagon myself. You learn pretty quickly just how slow you have to go if you don’t want your back end swinging all over the place.

That said, I would still rather have the safety gear than not, what with all the risk takers out on the road.

Usually unobtrusive, it was interesting to feel the ESC cycle between the Sienna’s two front wheels trying to get to the top of my driveway which I had just plowed and salted 2 hours prior. Toyota’s ESC doesn’t start beeping unless you’re slipping badly, which of course happens quite regularly when trying to exit our subdivision.

My first driver 17 years ago was a RWD non-ABS sedan; now with all the distractions driving the 3 little ones I need all the e-nanny help I can get.

Humans more adaptable than machines? Uh, not the humans I know…

A driver piloting an old boat can be just as inattentive as one driving with lane departure alerts, and other accident-avoidance technology. Over-reliance of such technologies only highlights a long-standing problem: We’re failing to adequately teach proper defensive driving techniques.

Everyone should learn to drive in snowy ice with a 1981 Chevy Caprice or equivalent. It would make better drivers out of 80% of the yahoo’s on the road.