That does it for me. I am never going to own another car without ABS.
There's this 5-lane road up a fair slope, here. It is used by heavy trucks doing like 5 mph. People accelerate past like bullets when they see one ahead. Other idiots break down and leave the car in the middle of the road.
So, two incidents, one in my Gen IV Max (ABS) and one today in the Sentra (non ABS).
Like 4 weeks ago I pulled out in the Max and went WOT to go around a cement truck grinding up the hill. And to my horror I found in the lane directly ahead, a broken down VW Beetle. (The hill is a long curve which is why I missed spotting it earlier)
I was at about 70 I guess and 50 yards away. So I hit the brakes and felt the ABS gravel under my foot, obviously I would have locked the wheels even on the dry road without ABS. I could not stop in time and so I glanced left and steered around the Beetle narrowly making it past the cement truck. The Max stayed very steerable even with the ABS working hard.
Today my son experienced a similar situation in the Sentra but locked the wheels, bounced off the curb, and went into the back of the arsehole who'd parked on the hill, on a double yellow. He's ok but the car is a mess.
So that is definitely it, so far as I am concerned. I don't think cars should be sold without ABS, honestly. It is a life saver.

 

agreed. 10char

 

sorry to hear that...

but on the other hand, what did you expect? If you can't see, go slow...

 

Why, thats what ABS, airbags, seatbelts and traction control is for...

 

I've been very happy that my Max is one of the few 4th gens that has ABS. It's also the one driving aid I wouldn't instinctively turn off every time I got in the car. I'm very capable of threshold braking and will instinctively do so in a non-ABS equipped car, but there's still no comparison.

 

It's not that hard to learn how to pump the brakes. Also I agree, if it's a dangerous place where you can't see if cars are broken down, why the hell are you people going so fast? Time to take some driving lessons!!






J/P but seriously... don't you think more caution should be taken? Especially when you know the danger well in advance?

 

My Max doesn't have ABS. Actually learned this the other day while bedding in my new pads. Locked it up a few times by mistake.

Sorry to hear, but definetly shouldn't be flying down a road where people just leave their cars in the road.

 

Also don't you think that your driving skills might be a little better than your son's? You didn't specify what speed he was going at either.

 

Well that little ABS light on my dash says i would have been meat.

 

both u and ur son are idiots. Don't blame the car not having abs or the people stopped in the middle of the road. I know you can't stop like that, but what are you gonna do if the cars' broken down in the middle of the road.

He shoulda been more cautious. and u both seriously need driving lessons. u can't speed up on a hill trying to pass someone. u don't know whats ahead of you.

But, He'll learn his lesson. He's gonna get hammered by the ins. company.

 

I love all the hypocrites that jump in calling people they don’t know idiots because they almost had or had an accident...

Unless you have NEVER broken a speed limit and always drive super defensive, you have done the same things... You just did not end up having a broken down car surprise you.

Do you crawl around every turn? You never know what is around that corner!

 

true, I'll admit I'm an agressive driver, but I don't do 70 uphill

 

And I go slow in a KNOWN dangerous spot.

 

You could call every highway a "known" dangerous spot...

 

You might as well drive with your eyes closed.

If you can't see where you are going, you HAVE to craw around the corner.

 

So you are telling me that every turn you come up to you slow to a crawl to be sure nothing is there...

Tell me again why you want F1 handling?

 

No crap you "slow" down for a turn, but he specified that he CRAWLS around them...

Even slowing down for a turn is not enough if there is a broken down car in the middle of it, unless you slow to near a stop... Then you would just get rear-ended so you did nothing for yourself...

I know of plenty of blind turns that have a suggested speed limit of 30mph that 99.99% of people take at 50mph... As I was saying unless you drop it to a crawl you still cannot avoid them.

To boot, this is on a 5-Lane HIGHWAY where the speed limits are at 55-65mph and no one slows for them, this is not a residential area full of stop signs.

 

I can feel it coming......

 

I slow down just enough to be able to avoid potential collision.

Sometimes I do take turns at the limit of my car's abilities, but I do that only if I can see through the whole turn, or if I can, somehow, be guaranteed that nothing is hiding behind that corner.

 

that's not true

 

I consider myself a very safe driver but I've had to experience the ABS before. I was coming up on a stop light and the road was damp from a light rain we just had. The light turned yellow and I swear it was the fastest damn yellow light I've ever seen, and I was at that point where you're like, do I go through yellow or try to stop. Well, I hit the brakes and could feel the ABS doing its job. It's great to have, for sure, without it, I may have just slid right out into the intersection.

 

A couple of comments on this post. Personally, I like ABS. To me, it makes the car steerable in a panic situation, and there's no guesswork, just mash one's foot into the floor. But I think there's a misconception that a car can stop shorter with it. When it first came out, like with anything, user error caused accidents. Some people try to apply the same analogy and conclude red light cameras cause accidents. The red light cameras don't do anything, they're inanimate objects. User error causes accidents.

Another comment was made by someone stating he's got one of the few 4th gens with ABS. I have no numbers but I think most 4th gens have ABS. I've driven 5 of them and all 5 had ABS. I do know of stripped GXE's with fixed mast antennas that had 5-spds and no ABS. I also know of a SE auto with no ABS. But I think they're the minority.

As far as making ABS manditory, I dunno. That's like some guy that knocked on my door the other day wanting to raise the minimum wage to $7.15/hr. I couldn't understand why a person would do that, because that would put many people out of a job, while at the same time giving others a 39% pay increase that's not merit-based. Work is employment at will, we can choose to work wherever we want. I'd hope we'd choose a job that we liked and that paid us what we felt comfortable with. There's a reason that some cars do not come with ABS--price. Make ABS manditory, and those people can no longer buy a new car. Why don't we make true dual exhausts manditory while we're at it?

Let's face it--many cars today have ABS, traction, and stability all standard. In quite a few cases it gives drivers added confidence, and there are still accidents. Machines and technology can only mitigate erroneous input to a certain degree, beyond that point an accident still happens.