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Unsafe at Any Speed

Unsafe at Any Speed

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A must for persons interested in Road Safety
Review: As a Traffic Safety Specialist, this book is a MUST, this old book needs to be mandatory reading for any person interested in Road Safety, Ralph documented the resistance of car companies to the introduction of safety features, like safety belts, that looks timely today, for example with the lobby that produce a delay in the mandatory fitting of air bags. Also you will learn how the primitive road safety components, still used in USA, called the three E's (Engineering, Enforcement, Education ) was born as a device to direct the efforts to the community away from the real problems of safety of the vehicles, some of the that was sell with tires that don't resist the weight of the fully loaded vehicle !.

Finally you can understand the lacking level of road safety in US versus European countries that have in service safety policies that will reduce the absolute number of killed by 30% over 5 years.

This book is the necessary building stone to the effort to make car manufacturers accountable for the safety level of his products.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All the stars in the milky whey wouldn't correct the wrong
Review: The Corvair was the Pinto of the '60s. Ralph Nadir was the first to say, "Enough is enough!" and took the Big Three to the mat, in this case just Chevrolet. If you liked Roger and Me you must have to read this book--it will change the way you look at modern day power structure. To think one man who came to define "consumer advocate" could topple a mighty giant of American Indusrty! This car was dangerous because the company tried to cut costs on the rear suspension, but all they saved was $4 per car!!! Incredable to believe human life could mean so little to some, but that is why you must to read this book.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Doubtful Premise
Review: This 1965 book made the author famous nationwide. It claimed that the Chevrolet Corvair, an air-cooled rear-engine rear wheel drive car, was totally unsafe, even while parked! This is either an exaggeration, or a lie. Like the VW Beetle, the links on the rear wheels would not prevent a rear wheel from folding inward under extreme conditions. The publicity later caused GM to correct this problem.

The Corvair was the most successful GM compact car of the time, and the most fuel-efficient. Could this attack have resulted from the machinations of Big Oil? After this, cars got longer, wider, and heavier with decreasing fuel economy until after the 1973 oil shortage; but it took an Act of Congress to do this (companies are prevented from collusion).

Nader later formed a group to support his activities; this required donations from various groups, some of whom may have benefitted from his work. I think some of his proposals would benefit the special interests of patent holders or manufacturers; such as "childproof" bottle caps.

An old saying is "the perfect is the enemy of the good". I wonder if the proposals of Nader's group ever benefitted some special interests at expense of the common people?

Could Ralph Nader still be acting for special interests today? Read the newspapers and decide for yourself.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Doubtful Premise
Review: This 1965 book made the author famous nationwide. It claimed that the Chevrolet Corvair, an air-cooled rear-engine rear wheel drive car, was totally unsafe, even while parked! This is either an exaggeration, or a lie. Like the VW Beetle, the links on the rear wheels would not prevent a rear wheel from folding inward under extreme conditions. The publicity later caused GM to correct this problem.

The Corvair was the most successful GM compact car of the time, and the most fuel-efficient. Could this attack have resulted from the machinations of Big Oil? After this, cars got longer, wider, and heavier with decreasing fuel economy until after the 1973 oil shortage; but it took an Act of Congress to do this (companies are prevented from collusion).

Nader later formed a group to support his activities; this required donations from various groups, some of whom may have benefitted from his work. I think some of his proposals would benefit the special interests of patent holders or manufacturers; such as "childproof" bottle caps.

An old saying is "the perfect is the enemy of the good". I wonder if the proposals of Nader's group ever benefitted some special interests at expense of the common people?

Could Ralph Nader still be acting for special interests today? Read the newspapers and decide for yourself.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Questioning Power!
Review: This book does a brilliant job of questioning corporate power, and the interests that put the consumer's at risk for the sake of the bottom line.

The amount of hatred directed at him from the right-wingers as well as conformist 'liberals' is only a measure of the fear of truth that Ralph has managed to inspire in these parasites.


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