Have you observed that many Volvo drivers feel so protected that their driving skills or attention to the road is less than adequate? Before you are personally offended, please note that I use "many" not "all" Volvo drivers.

Could this be the result of all those TV ads promoting crash safety performance?

• Report

by vinc3nt on March 29th, 2007

Doubtful. Those ads don't use 1988 Buick Skylarks or other "one-star wonders" of the past.

• Report

by 8 Jan 2004-10 Dec 2009 on March 31st, 2007

I was referring to the New car ads featured by Volvo. Yes other manufactures do these ads too. But Volvo has been promoting their safe design for decades in the USA.

• Report

by vinc3nt on March 31st, 2007

I was referring to people being unskilled and inattentive for reasons totally unrelated to advertising (past or present) or vehicle make/model.

• Report

by 8 Jan 2004-10 Dec 2009 on March 31st, 2007

Ok, lets keep score. We can put a note pad in our car and put a hash mark under the Volvo column or the all other column and compare results after 6 months. Perhaps my observations have been influenced by the Volvo safety ads.

• Report

by vinc3nt on March 31st, 2007

Small problem; I can go for a week without seeing a single Volvo and still get nearly hit by someone with delusions of immortality. If I had to single out a single manufacturer for instilling this behavior, it would be either Ford or GM as most of the road-owning idiots who have cut me off or attempted to ram/sideswipe me or who just don't pay attention to the fact that there are other vehicles around them have driven a larger US-made vehicle.

• Report

by 8 Jan 2004-10 Dec 2009 on March 31st, 2007

I understand that some people feel immortal in larger vehicles hence the SUV popularity. Still if you record 15 incidents for GM or Ford owner out of 15 million on the road vs. 2 or 3 Volvo out of 10,000 on the road the percentage gives Volvo drivers the highest incident rate. I admit my study did take years in Southern California where Volvos are perhaps most popular outside the homeland.

• Report

by vinc3nt on April 1st, 2007

Ah. SoCal. I remember seeing a lot of cars in San Diego that would never survive a year up here. That is why we have so many SUVs, Subarus, and beater cars that are no great financial loss if/when they die. Road salt, black ice, mud season.... all reasons to leave your nice cars at the border, and things I never saw in the land of eternal 68-and-sunny.

• Report

by 8 Jan 2004-10 Dec 2009 on April 1st, 2007

One day when a driver pulled into my lane from a side street, causing me to respond quickly, I had a deja vu realization. Although this has happened before I noted again and again the car was a Volvo. More significantly, I noted the driver appeared unfazed by the extreme braking effort that I applied, after all his life was not at risk only mine. I invite you to keep score yourself.

• Report

by vinc3nt on March 29th, 2007