Clearing the snow off the roof is ALWAYS possible, and always a good idea. It's a way of life almost six months of the year here in Buffalo, NY.

 

Excuses...excuses. If you are in blizzard conditions then you shouldn't be driving. If it's safe enough to drive then you can always get out and clear the snow.

Bottom line, as the driver it is YOUR responsibility clear your car from snow no matter what the conditions.

And the LAW in may states.

 

Hi. Just wanted to know what other peoples experiences were in an emergency braking situation. We were involved in a serious accident last week where I rear ended a holiday trailer that was being pulled by a truck. He pulled out in front of us on a major highway and didn't see us. Due to the excellent ABS system I was able to maintain control and drive mostly around him, launch into the air, roll a couple of times and we all walked away. Yeah Hyundai Elantra! The airbags went off and things crumpled like they were supposed to and the seat belts held us in place and the roof held up etc. The only part I found odd was that it didn't slow down as much as I thought it could before we hit. I notice that the 2010 version has improved emergency braking . . . . We were in a curve of the highway so I am very thankful we did not lose control of the vehicle while I was pressing as hard as I could on the brake. However, I think other types of cars brake more. For example the Chevrolet Impala we test drove braked more suddenly. What have other people found?

 

The Touring brakes better than the Impala (15' LESS from 70-mph) so I don't know what to tell you.

2009 Touring
70-0 mph braking = 179'
(source)

2007 Impala
70-0 mph braking = 194'
(source)

Glad you walked away. It shows how well built, engineered and safe the Touring is.

 

honeybee: I'm glad you came out of that as well as you did. As for comparing brakes on different cars, the only way to do it properly is in a controlled test environment. Thus, I'd believe the posted numbers. I don't discount your impression about the brakes, but I know that in situations like that people report "everything happening in slow motion" as our senses go into hyperdrive. Maybe the brakes worked better than you think--or maybe they underperformed? I haven't panic stopped my Touring (yet...knock on wood) so I can't give a personal impression.

Here's a question for someone in the know: All the published braking numbers I've seen are straight line braking from 60 mph or so. Is there a standard test for braking on a radius? It would be a better measure of the car's ABS and ESP (or similar acronym) system. I'll have to see what I can dig up.

 

Braking on a straight or braking on a curve doesn't matter for braking distance and ABS. In both cases the ABS will activate.

Remember, ABS does not make you stop sooner, it prevents the brakes from locking and losing steering control. That's why it's called Anti-lock Braking System.

If you can lock your brakes and cause ABS to operate then the weak point is between the tires and the road. Adding tires with more traction will shorten stopping distances.

If you can floor the brake and the ABS does not kick in then the weak point is the brakes. Adding larger rotors, better pads, bigger calipers and/or increase cooling to the brakes will shorten stopping distances.

 

Braking in a straight line or a curve does matter. Today's electronic stability control systems modulate individual wheel brakes to create a stabilizing yaw moment on the vehicle. As you said, ABS doesn't make you stop sooner because it's keeping the wheels from locking--you need a rotating wheel to produce lateral tire forces for directional control. The tradeoff is a bit longer stopping distance with the ability to steer vs. locking 'em up and sliding straight ahead to a stop.

Electronic stability control does something similar, except that it attempts to prevent you from spinning by letting off or applying the brakes by different amounts left/right. If you're doing a panic stop on a curve it shouldn't apply the brakes more (because the ABS wants to keep the wheels from locking), so it would have to let off a little. The tradeoff is a little longer stopping distance on a curve vs. spinning.

So if you're doing a panic stop on a curve and the stability control activates it should take a little longer to stop than a straight line stop with ABS alone.

NovaResource, I agree with your comments about whether the "weak points" are the tires or the brakes. I've had a few interesting conversations with people over the years on the topic. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience to convince people that the tires stop the car, not the brakes. The brakes *cause* the tires to stop the car.

I started asking around to see if there is a defined, standard test for stopping distance on a curve. An ISO procedure (21994:2007) exists for a straight line stopping distance test. Nothing for stopping distance on a curve to exercise the stability control program along with the ABS. I'll keep digging.

 

I disagree. Stability Control would only activate if the car was going to spin out or roll over. If you can take the curve at 70-mph without the Stability Control activating then taking that same curve while applying the brakes would not cause the stability control to activate. The only way I could see the Stability Control activate while braking is if while taking the curve in one direction (ie left hand turn) you try to steer hard the other way (ie right hand turn). In that case, yes, I could see the Stability Control activating and releasing the brakes and possibly causing longer stopping distances. But there is no way to test that one, specific situation. Straight-line stop tests allow consistent results that could be equally compared to other cars. Plus, you can't test a car for every type of situation that could possibly happen. Should a cars brakes be tested in rain, snow, ice, down hill, on gravel, with the throttle stuck wide open?

 

Braking a front-wheel-drive car in a curve is a recipe for spinning, and so is very likely to activate the stability control. Braking in turns is generally a bad idea--proper technique is to do all braking ahead of the turn--but of course we're talking about a panic situation.

 

Panic stop pressure would kick in brake assist, and then emergency maneuvers in a curve would add lateral forces likely opposed to the lateral forces of the curve..... Plus with the wieght thrown to one side in the curve and then during the emergancy driving you cut your total braking power by lifting weight off one side and over loading the other. The ESC probably kicked on. Also we didn't buy the ET for its performance tires. Its summer time and its hot and that is a big negative for our tires. Our small tires designed for long life do not grip as well in the heat as a dedicated summer tire or a wider tire with a bigger foot print/contact patch.

Sorry your ET died, glad you didn't.

On a side note... Tecnically tires do not stop the car, the lack of inertia does. The tires and brakes work togetheralong with the rest of the suspencion to fight inertia. A blown strut for example can have a very noticalbe affect on braking distance and it throws weight transfer off.