[fairlady]

How important is modern safety to you when looking for a sports car?

I saw photos of a new wrecked Supra and think to myself that I'm glad sports cars are so safe these days when things go wrong. The occupants will live to drive another day, incredibly. Brand New Toyota Supra Totaled During Test Drive, Occupants Live To Tell The Tale | Carscoops

 

[New2Nissan]

Like anything, it's possible to have too much of a "good" thing. I'm all for a strong structure, good brakes, grippy tires, and seat belts. The basics. I think ABS is great and the advent of traction/stability control has made high power RWD cars driveable in many different conditions. I think the more modern systems that allow for different levels of intervention are amazing. Beyond these, this is where things get a bit iffy for me. I don't mind blind spot monitoring, but loathe active systems like lane-keep assist. I also very much dislike systems that actively brake for me. The problem with active technology at the current time is that they're"dumb". They generally aren't capable of learning how someone drives and making the necessary changes to when and how hard the systems activate.

When it comes to buying a car, safety is not at the top of my list. I am of the opinion that almost all modern cars are fairly safe. If it turns out that the next Z is a death trap based on testing, I don't think I'd be interested. But I expect it to be perfectly adequate. If the option is given, I would also opt out of as many active safety features as I could.

 

[Timmo500]

Of course, i think safety should be important to everyone.
Vehicle safety has come a tremendous way in the last 20 years or so. That crashed A90 is a perfect eg.

But myself and probably many others will be the first to admit, safety is not the first thing I think of when looking for a car.
I for one have to fall in the love with the looks and Aesthetics before anything else.

I drive a 370Z and a Mazda3 MPS (Mazdaspeed3 for our US friends) and to me, both of those cars have modern safety features which I find is more than enough to satisfy me.
Features like adaptive cruise control and blind spot indicators (on newer cars) are just some small things which are very good, but makes people a little more lazy when it comes to paying full attention to the road.
Which leads me to onto thinking most of these modern features that seem to be added 'safety comforts' but wont necessarily save your ass in an accident. But I guess they will decrease the event of accidents when shoulder checking and concentration of spacial awareness fails lol

 

[Jdmuscle]

BMW always builds a safe car if anything else.