More on small cars and auto safety (updated)

The Christian Science Monitor weighs in on the automobile size vs. safety debate with this story from June 12, which I learned about a little while ago.

Remind me sometime to walk through a dealership lot and look for cars that don't have power windows, automatic transmissions, air conditioning and other weighty options. The best car for mileage that I ever drove was a 1990 Honda Civic hatchback with a four-speed manual transmission, no AC, not even a radio. I don't think it had power steering, either. And in a basic car like that, don't even think about cruise control or power seats. It got about 40 mpg on the highway.

If we want to talk about improving CAFE, this is where we start -- by convincing Americans to buy stripped-down cars. But it will be a very tough sell until we see $5 or $6 gasoline.

And my five-person family would barely fit in one of those things. It wouldn't fit there at all if one or more kids were in a child restraint seat.

UPDATE 1: For another view, which happens to contradict views I posted earlier, try this one that talks about the changing weights of "small" cars and the record of weight-vs-safety research.

UPDATE 2: I don't think Michelle linked to this one. If you did, Michelle, I'm sorry to duplicate, but this piece from the IIHS from a few years ago has some interesting conclusions. (PDF alert). The most interesting one to me, and one that I agree with, is that if we must legislate any vehicles out of existence, would would aim at the very smallest and the very largest. When you start doing that, though, who's to say you can ride your Harley but I can't drive my Yugo?