Many people, including college students, overlook one of the most important things when buying a new car–safety. It is a known truth that a new car is probably filled with the most up-to-date safety features in the automotive market today. However, knowing that the car is “safe” does not mean how safe the car really is because of the safety features it has or the lack of them. Therefore, this paper will illustrate the need to examine and research the safety features when a (new or used) car, integrate safety as part of the checklist when buying a car and it will face any opposing viewpoints towards automotive safety.
Looking at a car’s safety features and scores does not take a long time to check for any car nowadays because the there are many websites (including all the car companies) that post these features and scores. One of these websites is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which has a database at Safecar.gov that contains all the results from the crash safety tests performed online available to public on all the cars they perform their test on. Safecar.gov is a website that is updated whenever the NHTSA performs new crash safety tests on any new car and posts the results online along with the entire standard and, sometimes, optional safety features that each tested car has. Furthermore, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety also has a website that is similar to the NHSTA’s Safecar.gov and tests the crash safety features of every new car they possibly can and posts the results on their respective website at www.iihs.org. Both the IIHS and the NHSTA’s websites are non-profit organizations funded directly by the government or the many auto insurers in order to inform the citizens of the United States on how safe the car they are going to buy really is. Even though their methods of scoring are different, both institutions test the safety of each car so no driver will ever have to. Researching the
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