I do not know which exactly post to comment – there are too many related threads here. So I am posting my comments in this thread.
ABS and ESC – General Note: Try to do without them, and you will never complain again. Most of us tend to overestimate and overstate our driving skills and abilities… and overstate the length of some other male organ (better state it in millimeters: “It is 305 mm long, baby!”). I could understand if you lived in Russia or Ukraine (or Latin America or Egypt) – every driver here thinks that he is better than Schumacher (suffering from acute cases of machism or spermotoxicosis respectively – all related diseases caused by testosterone poisoning of somebody’s brain – see note below). Automatic transmission – for chicks, terrible performance and fuel efficiency; ABS – you can modulate brakes with your foot better than this; air conditioning – not needed: one less thing to break, you can open windows; power windows – not needed: another less thing to break; power seats – nobody needs them: you adjust your seat only once, do not let anybody else drive your car – your car is your castle; not to mention power heated seats, and so on. There are also drivers (especially cab drivers) that do not turn the headlights on at night (and have their windows tinted deeply into the illegal zone): Are you blind? – Street lights provide enough light! Most of this misconceptions in my part of the world come from the Soviet times: the quality of cars was poor, they were severely underpowered, traffic was far from intense (so you can do practically anything on the road without risking of hitting another car; however, most old-school drivers – who started to drive in the 1940s-1970s – strictly adhere to the traffic rules – these rules are almost sacred to them). But now, we are pushing driving to the limit. We drive 100 kph (62 mph) in dense city traffic – no dedicated highways here. In rain and snow! Who could have imagined it 25 years ago? Now you ask why you need HID lights? Just because without them, you will hit a pedestrian before you see him! Or ABS? So you can drive around this pedestrian or open manhole or avoid another road hazard! Do you know when the guy in front of you will hit the brakes? Or some woman decides to make a U-turn from the right lane? No chance for error in conditions like that! Of course, there is no better safety feature than careful driving and correct judgment, sound reasoning and thinking… Unfortunately not all models of humans are equipped with it.
Note: Just for the purposes of objectivity, I must note that the author of this post also suffers from the same disease – testosterone poisoning – only not in its severe form.
Show me a driver who can get better fuel efficiency than modern ATs achieve? Do you all know when to shift? Outperform ABS? You can count them on one hand.
ABS helps you to stop – no matter what! At least it prevents a car from spinning out of control. When you complain that “the ABS just did ‘boom-boom-boom’ and the car kept going forward – I could have stopped faster without that”, think what could have happened without it. On a dry surface – you could; in this case – you could not… unless you had some special training in extreme driving (“Wheels lock up – pulse the brake pedal!”). Most likely, your car would have sinned out of control without ABS – that’s all.
So you don’t like all the new smart features? Disconnect them and prepare $X you paid for your Santa Fe. Start driving and, if it rains or snows, count minutes to your major accident. Try to drive in freezing rain – 0 C (32 F).
And probably one most important feature about these smart systems is that they start working before you even recognize that there is a problem! How long will it take you to realize that your wheels are locked up? A second? 28 m (91 ft) at 100 kph (62 mph)! BANG!!!
I realized all the advantages of these technologies for the first time on December 31, 1996 – January 1, 1997 in Des Moines, IA, in my 1986 Audi 5000CS Turbo. Unlike many other cars that turned into piles of metal that night, my car made it to – not without a dangerous encounter – to Lamoni, IA. Well, I landed into a ditch on the way home – a managed crash landing – a better choice than crossing the grass strip and hitting the oncoming traffic on the other side of I-35. The problem was partly tires (worn on the back), partly my incorrect judgment of safe speed – I was going about 50-55 mph, when everybody was going 40-45 mph. Of course, ABS, snow tires in front – I thought I was equal to gods! Mistaken I was: 55 mph has become a terminal velocity. So it is a mixed example: On one hand, it proves that technology is useful; on the other, it supports my statement above that no technology is substitute for sound judgment. So every technology has its limitations.
Another example from my life – the same period of time, also in Iowa: I am visiting my friend in Ames. He just bought a 1983 Mercury Zephyr – thrifty Bulgarians. (Dino, please don’t take it personally, if you are reading these lines: Bulgarians are actually very good people! I was almost married to a Bulgarian girl. In case you have questions why ‘almost’: I had to go back home, and she got a job in Dallas, TX.) Well, we were all poor International students then: He started his Ph.D., and I deferred my admission to Baylor MBA for a year and decided to earn some money before I would become very poor again. I was lucky that my first car – 1987 Chevrolet Cavalier – was written off after it was rear-ended in Independence, MO. So I bought an Audi. What a difference! So my friend drives his Mercury in front of my, about an inch of snow, the traffic light turns red, he steps on the brakes… the car starts to fishtail (skid). The rear tire hits the curb, which makes his car to stop. Luckily no damage, only a little bit of shock in his and his wife’s eyes. I was able to safely stop – that’s all the difference. Even if the distance had not been sufficient to safely stop behind his car, I could easily go to the left of his car.
So next topic is…
Winter Tires: Those of us who drive AWD (4WD) believe that we are invincible! Mistakenly so… Quite mistakenly! AWD will get you going on any surface… but what will make you stop? Tires and only tires. If there is no traction – nothing can stop you: no ABS, no ESP, no engine… Maybe, a curb, a wall, a tree, a light pole… or another car. Not a good way to stop. So if you live where it snows – think about buying a set.
Even an earlier example – early snowfall in Kansas City, MO, in October 1996: I was going down a ramp (branching to the right from the highway and going then under it) on a multilevel intersection in my 1987 Cavalier. I decided to slow down – unsuccessfully. The wheels locked up. The centrifugal force pushed me to the right side of the ramp – my front right tire hit the curb, and this is how I stopped. No ABS. No winter tires. Luckily no damage.
Deep Snow vs. Light Snow vs. Ice: I will be talking about my experience with winter tires, which have deeper tread pattern. I believe that ice is the greatest danger of winter driving. There is no more treacherous danger than that – you cannot see it (especially when it is thin), it comes unexpectedly. Packed (dense, settled) snow is similar to ice, but at least you can see it. Slightly better traction that on ice – your tires can push through it – yet barely – to get at least some grip. Light snow by itself is not extremely dangerous, yet can be very slippery when wet and hide ice below it. Light snow, or crushed ice, mixed with water is referred to as slush, and winter and all-season tires are often rated in their ability to resist slushplaning (a term similar to hydroplaning (aquaplaning)). Why light snow is usually better? Because tires have better chance of getting through it to the hard surface. At least 1 of the 4 does… For me, deep snow is the least of all winter dangers. Why? Because it is soft enough to be compressed to form a pattern (mirrored to the tire tread pattern) that provides traction. Plus you really cannot drive fast in deep snow – a built-in safety feature. Do you want to test my theory safely? Try walking on ice? You can’t? So what makes you to believe that you car can? It has 4 wheels? OK, it helps, but really does not solve the problem. Now go to the packed snow. Better, but still difficult – slippery, low traction. Now go into the deep snow. Difficult – too much resistance, but walkable – decent traction. You can try light snow now, without my guidance…
Santa Fe and Its Driving Stability: Both ABS and ESP are very good. ESP helps you to regain control faster than you notice. Some complain that “the car started to fishtail on snow, I heard breaks go ‘boom-boom-boom’, and the ESP sign lit up (started to flash) on the dashboard”. Now think what would have happed without it. Yep, that’s right – in the best case you hit the curb with a rear tire; in the worst – a tree with a side of your car (the worst kind of damage: the cars are mostly designed for front and rear collisions). Or imaging rolling over in your Santa Fe. With EPS, all it takes to regain control is ‘boom-boom-boom’ (less than a second) – and note that your rear tires deviated by (just!) no more than 10 cm (4 in… OK, maybe 15 cm (6 in)) from the projected trajectory before you got back on track. Santa Fe’s ABS works as on any other car equipped with such system – no louder, no quieter.
To see specifically how Santa Fe behaves on snow and ice, I took my Santa Fe for a test in January of this year. Driving in Kiev in some days of winter is an extreme experience by itself: Road services are not fast enough to plow snow: light snow, slush, deep snow – I experienced them all. Driveways do not get cleaned at all: ice and packed snow. The difference was that I took my Santa Fe on a suburban road that has never seen snow plowing and surrounded by snow covered lawns on both sides. So I could do some crazy things with the car without risking hitting something – I really wanted to see how ESP works and have a moment long enough to actually notice how the ESP sign lights up on the dashboard. I got what I wanted – but no matter what I did to my car it performed very well.
Hopefully, I did not bore you to death with my stories… I hope that my experience saves some costly ‘experiments’ to somebody who read this. Have a safe ride!
