Poll: ABS brakes: good or bad?

[Muerto]

I'm going to be buying a car soon and I'm wondering if I should get one with ABD brakes or not. I haven't driven one with ABS before so I don't know how they handle in hard stops. Most of my driving will be a combination of highway and city most of the time.

What are your opinions and experiences with them? Should I get a car with ABS or whould I avoid them like the plauge? Thanks.

 

[Pepsi90919]

where's the poll where's the poll where's the poll

 

[Pepsi90919]

there it is!

 

[Muerto]

Done! You guys are way too fast.

 

[StageLeft]

they are good in regular cars

 

[Muerto]

In what situations do you find that ABD brakes perform best? Wet roads? Dry roads? At what speeds? In what size cars? I'll probably be buying a smaller car.

 

[Windogg]

99% of the drivers do better with ABS under most conditions because they are not trained or diciplined to pump the brakes as opposed to just pushing the pedal to the floor. A Car and Driver test with a MB S500 proved that under certain conditions, pure lockup had shorter stopping distances than ABS at the expense of 4 ruined tires. They also proved that a diciplined driver on ice or a very slick surface could moderate the pedal to stop the car shorter, What the proved was more the exception than the rule and I for one have been saved many times by ABS. A truck once lost it's load on the highway and ABS allowed me to panic stop and stear around several large pieces of sewer pipe. A lockup would have taken away the ability to steer and thus lead to one hell of an impact.

Get ABS, it's worth the price and there might be an insurance discount.

Windogg

 

[lupin]

Get ABS. It's better for ANY CAR under ANY condition, with the exception of race cars.

(Doesn't all cars come standard w/ ABS today ? )

 

[Windogg]

lupin, unfortunatly many economy cars still have ABS as an option.

muerto, ABS is easy. Just go with instinct and floor the brake in an emergency. The brakes will pulse and fight you a little. This is normal so do not let up. Letting up basically ends the computer intervention and increases you stopping distance. After you get your car, find an empty lot and give it a shot. Getting used to the feel is important.

Windogg

 

[vi edit]

YES! Get ABS.

No, not all cars come standard with them.

The price of the extra will more than be made up for in insurance costs over the life of the car.

 

[Mill]

Even the Viper is offering ABS for the 2001 models.

 

[Pacfanweb]

The main advantage to ABS brakes is their ability to help you control the car. A great example would be hitting the brakes very hard while in a turn. The ABS would help prevent the car from swapping ends.
As far as pure stopping distance, ABS really isn't as good as regular lock up brakes, at least on dry pavement.
On wet pavement, the ABS is superior.
On ice, ABS works pretty well, but regardless, you can't stop for diddly on ice.
On snow, ABS is worthless because the snow will build up in front of your tires, keeping them from rolling regardless of what the ABS attempts to do.

Once again, the main function of ABS is the ability to keep the car or truck straight and controllable.

PS: I'm sure some racing ABS systems would register superior stopping distances in all conditions, but that kind of performance isn't inherent in stock, factory ABS systems.

 

[perry]

Since you aren't getting a truck to go off roading with, you can do just fine with ABS. The advantage of ABS on the road is that it allows you to steer and turn at the same time due to the way it pulses the brakes. If you know how to threshold brake a car, then you can probably stop a foot or two shorter without ABS. If your driving skills aren't up to par (you don't know what threshold braking is), then I'd say get ABS.

On my car mailing list, we've debated ABS many a time. Conclusion is always about the same -- go with what you want.

I have it on my car now, didn't have it on my first car. Really can't tell a difference except in one or two emergency stops in the rain. Of course, the poor performance on the car w/o ABS could have been due to balding tires, old brake fluid, and worn out pads.

 

[Muerto]

Cool, thanks for your input. It seem like the majority of you prefer ABD over power assisted brakes. And one person would rather drive without brakes.

I've heard opinions going both ways but under most conditions I've heard they perform just as well as power assisted brakes.

And if I were in the situation that Windogg was in when that truck lost its load I would have definitely wanted ABS so I could avoid the debris. Thanks guys/gals.

 

[Kubla Khan]

Aside:
Shortly after I graduated from high school, a couple friends of mine and me decided to drive out to our local airport. We thought, "Hey, there can't be any planes coming in at this time of night, so lets go for a ride on the runway." My car, I was driving.

So we take off down the runway...and I get up to about 110 mph. For some reason, I thought it would be funny to slam on the brakes and skid to a stop--which I did.

We left the airport and drove back to town, but the thing was, we kept hearing this "whoop whoop whoop" noise coming from my tires. We got out and looked at them, and my "sudden" stop at the airport left huge flat spots on all of my tires (which I had bought 3 months before).

Needless to say, it was extremely annoying to drive my car at highway speeds after that,due to the noise and the vibration. I soon got new tires, but I guess the moral of the story is, if you plan on making a lot of Starsky and Hutch braking maneuvers, anti-lock brakes will save you some money on tires in the long run.

 

[SuperTool]

I am from CA, and I couldn't care less if my car has ABS or not. It's good to have, I suppose, but I doubt I would pay much more for ABS, unless I lived in a place where it rains or snowes more then a few times a year. It's kind of like front wheel drive.

 

[xtreme2k]

Talk about physics.

If the road is slippery and you break hard, without ABS, the wheels will stop turning and therefore the friction between your wheels and the road will be HUGELY reduced due to "dynamic friction - from the point of the wheel and the road, since it is not turning but your card is moving this is therefore Dynamic" and it is a LOT less than "static friction, from the point of the road and the wheel, if a wheel is turning, it is not moving(weird but true)"

ABS will perform 'not as good' on dry roads since ABS does let your wheel to keep switching between spinning and stopping. However, on dry roads the difference isnt big therefore the breaking distance doesnt change hugely. However, in wet weather, the changes in coeffieient of static and dynamic friction is huge. ABS will break you faster and also give you a lot more control.

wtf am i talking about

 

[StageLeft]

I really like ABS. Most people will panic stop, even if they think they won't - and locking your brakes doesn't do you good many times. I know for a fact that myself and some guys in a cherokee saved a guy's life with ABS. For no apparent reason he ran out in front of us and from about 40 the brakes were jacked no and ABS stopped us only just short of the guy...

 

[pdo]

ABS have saved me countless time when driving under snowy conditions.

 

[Frenchie]

I'm with Paldo on this one. Having used several mustangs without ABS in the Pocono Mountain region of PA, I am much happier with my G/A's ABS system. There are several times that I would have run into problems with a non-ABS vehicle, that I escaped safely from thanks to my car's ABS. Turning and stopping on ice, snow, and wet roads is greatly improved. Especially if it is a vehicle that has a light rear end like a pickup, 'stang, etc. (which is likely to lock-up).

My advice: get the ABS.

 

[jtshaw]

ABS is a great safety feature. For one, it ventalates the breaks. In some instances of hard breaking on a car without ABS you can actually get a pocket of hot air that stops the breaks from functioning. ABS lets that pocket out. ABS also allows you to steer the card while breaking hard at the same time. Steering is near to impossible when you lock your breaks without ABS. Anyway, you could always pull the fuse out and disable it if you didn't like it.

 

[sweetrobin]

ABS breaks are really good ... believe me ... we used them often on Sunday when we were out in the snow ...

 

[StageLeft]

You guys must realize they are only good as a last resort - if you need them generally you were going too fast in the first place you know

In the last year of driving I have had to slam the brakes on to the max only once...in fact thats only the second time in the 6 years since I got my license. I still feel comfortable with them though.

 

[PCAddict]

I've got mixed feelings about ABS. It saved my neck once, and could have gotten me killed another time if I hadn't reacted quickly.

 

[Windogg]

C'mon Skoorb, you're in Nova Scotia.

ABS is really handy on the congested but fast moving highways in the northeast US. Boston is expecially dangerous with a high number of inexperienced and "invicible" college kids. Not only that but most driver's are too busy gabbing on their cell phones to realize they are a danger. The lost load of sewer pipe incident was just one time ABS saved my butt. Another time some teeny-bopper in mom's Grand Cherokee braked too late for a Stop sign and came to halt in the intersection in my path. Again I was able to steer around her because ABS kept me from locking up.