ABS brakes / Would you buy a Yaris without them?

[10peep]

Originally Posted by carnageehw

I'm a driving instructor, and I can promise you that in my 113,000 kms I've braked more with the ABS on than anyone else here. In fact, with every student we practice slamming on the brakes at 60 and 80 kms/hour. That's a LOT of braking.

A few things:

The Pedal WILL PULSATE back at you when you slam on the brakes. But so what? It's not a big deal when you know what that what the ABS does.

In good conditions the abs will only come on with hard braking at about 60km/h, or 40-ishmph. Drive well and you likely never need the abs to come on.

In the snow, I can see ABS being annoying. ABS brakes won't work as well on loose surfaces, and the extra control might be nice.

Other than that one area, I wouldn't want a car without ABS. They work great and studies show they stop you sooner on a dry road. Yes, you can pulse your brakes (threashold braking) but in a real emergency, I'd rather focus on where I need to move the car to and not waste time and energy thinking about not locking the brakes.

I don't really think ABD is a "nanny" any more than power steering is a "nanny".

^^^ This is exactly correct. Perfectly stated (except for the mis-spelling of ABS @ the end ) and the argument should end right here.

Originally Posted by SAV912

My girlfriend's '08 Yaris does not have ABS. My '09 does. And I have to say, I'm glad I don't drive her car daily. ABS is the one thing that I am okay with the nanny wars winning. Not because I personally like it (though I do), but because I know how the rest of society as a majority drives. Panic situation, hammer the brakes. No ABS = lock up and slide into whatever you're trying to avoid anyway. I wouldn't expect the average American driver to modulate threshold braking in panic situations.

You'd think almost every person here on YW was a seasoned race car driver with much disposable income and superhuman skills though, with the way everyone talks about not ever needing 'electronic nonsense'.

-C

No offense but this^^^=. This sounds like a driver with not too much experience in different types of cars or any type of performance driving. I dont have any clue why it is that people want to rely on computers to do EVERYTHING for them! Hell, 15 years ago hardly ANYTHING had ABS and people made it just fine! Like I said, my 2002 Tacoma does NOT have ABS and Ive towed 4,000 lbs with it and had to slam on my brakes @ 65mph. It did JUST FINE. A car company, especially one like Toyota would NOT engineer a vehicle WITHOUT ABS that would cause a driver to loose complete control over their vehicle in an emergency situation!