6 Important Factors Helpful in Determining the Safety of your Vehicle As the newer versions of vehicles roll-out in the market, they are seen equipped with several features that ensure the safety of both the driver and its passengers. Besides Airbags, advanced safety features like electronic stability, crash avoidance technologies and engineered bodies to reduce rollover ensure prevention from collision fatalities. A study by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that collision fatalities in late-model vehicles have dropped by more than a third in the past three years.
There are a few factors that everyone should consider when looking for car safety: 1. Vehicle Size As compared to the smaller vehicles that are lighter in weight, the heavier ones are lesser affected by collisions, but they take more time to stop. According to the IIHS, Mini-vans have the lowest collision fatality rate and offer occupants better protection from injury. The pick-up trucks average around 52 deaths per million while 4-door mini-cars average 82 deaths per million. 2. Body Build Steel and Aluminium, both are popularly used in car frames due to their reduced weight, excellent strength and durability. The advances in the material have evolved so much that it provides better protection for driver and passengers as they now absorb collision energy and provide a high-strength structure around vehicle occupants.
3. Airbags Safety Since 1999, front airbags have been an essential requisite of a vehicle. According to the IIHS research, the front airbags reduce driver fatality in frontal crashes by 29 percent. Now that they have become safer with the use of weight sensors, NHTSA data showed that enhancement saved many lives reducing front passenger collision fatalities by 32 percent The advancement has led to newer vehicles having incorporated side airbags to protect the driver’s head from hitting the window in driver-side crashes. The results were backed by IIHS research, which indicated that these additional airbags reduce driver death by 37 percent in cars and 52 percent in SUVs. 4. Electronic Stability Control (ESC) First introduced in 1996, ESC allows each wheel of the vehicle to brake individually using the speed sensors, which also laid the foundation of anti-lock brakes. It gives vehicle more control by detecting the vehicle’s sensors and auto-adjusting the brakes on the wheel through rotation and steering sensors. 5. Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) Tire blowouts are often a major risk for the passengers, which can also lead to vehicle misbalancing in certain cases. TPMS was introduced in 2007, which alerts the driver about the irregularity of pressure through a display of light on the instrumental panel. According to NHTSA, it is estimated that this safety feature can prevent more than 79 deaths and 10,365 injuries each year in the United States. 6. Crash Avoidance To greatly reduce the risk and severity of collisions, various crash avoidance technology has been introduced, especially in the last six to eight years. These advancements include adaptive cruise control (maintaining a safe distance from vehicles), adaptive headlines (moving with the shape of the road), back-up cameras (reducing the chances that a driver will back into an object, vehicle or person), blindspot monitors (warning the driver that an object is present in a blind spot by illuminating a light on your side view mirror) and front crash prevention systems (alerting drivers to potential obstacles ahead of the vehicle and apply brakes if needed). With every advancement of technology, vehicles are becoming safer for the passengers but unprecedented opportunities also emerge for Automotive Risk Management Industries like Auto Insurance & Lending to develop a deep understanding of each vehicle they are underwriting. Using the VIN number for every make and model, companies provide vehicle safety ratings that give the users relevant information about the risk associated with the vehicle. Source: - https://www.123articleonline.com/articles/1155853/6-important-factors-helpful-indetermining-the-safety-of-your-vehicle
How to locate and decode a VIN Number to Check a Car’s Options VIN or Vehicle Identification Number is a 17-digit unique code made up of numbers and characters that an automobile manufacturer assigns to a vehicle upon its production. This number reveals many things about automobiles including where the car was manufactured, what kind of car it is, when it was manufactured and even what options it came with when it left the factory. Typically, the vehicle identification number can be found stamped at various places on an automobile – the plate that's mounted on the dashboard near the windshield or the driver-side doorjamb or on the engine's firewall. By locating this number, you can get information on the manufacturer’s website, and get a vehicle history report from the third party companies. Here’s how you can locate the number and decode it: METHOD 1: Locating the VIN There are many places where you can locate the VIN. Most vehicles have VIN etched in the form of a sticker on at least two parts of the vehicle. You can find it on the driver’s side door jamb, driver’s side dashboard, parts of the vehicle that are irremovable or metal within the engine’s compartment. You can also find the VIN on documents associated with the automobile, including Title, Registration and Repair records. If you still couldn’t access the VIN, you can also ask the seller for it, which the seller should provide happily to do your independent vehicle history research. METHOD 2: Generating the VIN Report Once you find out the VIN, run an internet search for “free VIN lookup” websites. There are some websites that will provide free VIN report services consisting of every detail of a car’s option while others may offer an advanced search for a fee. After you’ve found a website where you can look up your VIN, enter the details of the number in full (some websites may ask you to omit certain parts of the VIN number). Now follow the website’s instructions to submit the VIN number and get a VIN detail report in return. The generated VIN details report will include details about:
Options such as the transmission, trim, and emissions specifications Anything that was changed in the production process
However, your VIN detail report may not include options that were added after the manufacturer like the details added by the dealer, or by the consumer after the initial sale.
METHOD 3: Decoding the VIN Once you have the VIN number, log on to the Internet and visit the manufacturer’s website to decode the VIN and understand what it means. To do this, you can follow the steps below:
Almost all manufacturers have a VIN number decoder or similar tool on their website, which can be found either in the tabs or in the website’s search section under the name “VIN decoder” or “VIN search”. Visit the page or .pdf file that gives you information about decoding the VIN and complete the process.
Any Vehicle identification number decoder will decode the entire number into various pieces of information, such as type of vehicle and where it was produced, manufacturer options or features the vehicle was manufactures with - Engine, Model and Body style, model year of the vehicle and what specific plant the vehicle was built as well as production-specific information. One such popular VIN decoder is Sticker Lookup, which is also a part of a historic technological transition in the Automobile industry that creates an extraordinary opportunity for Risk Management Industries like Auto Insurance & Lending by providing the industry’s first Collision prevention score for every VIN in every Make & Model. It helps these industries to develop a deep understanding of each vehicle they are underwriting by capturing the build specification of every vehicle sold in the market and using this information to rank the automobiles based on the risk associated with the people operating them. Source: - https://uberant.com/article/614585-how-to-locate-and-decode-a-vin-number-to-check-a-carsoptions/