This week on NPR’s Car Talk Andy called to get the Tappit Brothers’ advice on buying a new “fun” car, and he was thinking about a Volvo V70-R. Click said, “It’s not a good idea, you will kill yourself. I have a theory about cars like Volvos and other cars that have this reputation for safety. That in some sense they encourage you to push the envelope, to do something stupid. You say, ‘Well, if I crash into the bridge abutment, well, it’s a Volvo! It can take it! I will probably live! What’s a bridge?’ (snort)” Landsburg taught us that when you make seatbelts mandatory, people drive more recklessly. So, when you drive a Volvo you also have more “fun” driving, that is, you drive like a bonehead.
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