When you’re traveling down the highway, all sizes of vehicles are sharing the road, and when you’re in a two-seater, it can be a problem. From tractor-trailers to SUVs, giant pickups and the kinds of cars your white-haired grandma drove, you see them all. The question is whether cars with two seats are safe on the highway, which we explore below.
Advantages Of Two-Seater Vehicles
Two-seaters are much more maneuverable than large vehicles, can increase their speed quickly and come with a variety of safety features as do larger cars. However, the size and weight of a two-seater are much lower, which can put them at a disadvantage.
From roadsters to sports cars, vehicles on the highway can weigh as little as the MX-5 Mazda Miata at around 2,341 pounds to a fully loaded tractor-trailer at 80,000. These smaller vehicles do have plenty of safety features, especially the newer ones. For example, the latest Mazda MX-5 comes with the following safety features:
- Brake Support
- Monitoring Of Blind Spots
- Lane Departure Warning
- Cross-Traffic Alerts In The Rear
- Blind Spot Warning
Having Safety Features In Your Small Car Is A Start, But Is It Enough?
Disadvantages Of Two-Seaters On The Highway
This is pretty much a no-brainer. Because of their smaller size and lightweight, if a two-seater gets into an accident with a much larger vehicle, severe injuries and fatalities can quickly occur. In a perfect world where everyone obeys the rules of the road, this might not present a problem. Unfortunately, there are plenty of drivers on highways who are speeding, texting, driving drunk and committing other violations that can lead to an accident.
Don’t Even Mention Big Rigs And Other High Vehicles
One of the problems with driving on a highway is the presence of big rigs, SUVs and those jacked-up pickup trucks with oversized tires. Although your two-seater is more maneuverable and faster, it doesn’t stand a chance against those vehicles if an accident occurs. Unfortunately, they are everywhere, and not everyone can pull off what Chevy Chase did in his station wagon in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. You know the movie…Chase ends up in his station wagon riding underneath a log hauler but manages to get out from under the big rig without so much as a scratch.
Underride and override accidents are a real danger on the highways when a smaller vehicle goes under a larger one. The risk of severe injuries and fatalities is high. The big problem is that those driving these behemoths can’t see you and your little two-seater if you are too close. Truckers can’t see vehicles along most of their left side and several lanes on the right. Truckers also can’t see what’s in front of them for 20 feet and behind them for 30.
Other Reasons To Keep Your Sports Car Off The Highway
So, you think you are an amateur Mario Andretti, and you’re convinced you can avoid an accident on the highway because your two-seater is more agile and small enough to even fit in small spaces if necessary. There are still other reasons why it isn’t safe to drive on highways, even though you often have little option if you are going far.
- The insurance on your two-seater can be as high as your rent, if you live in a cheap area and spend most of your money on your car. The last thing you want to do is get in an accident.
- You can’t be on the highway if the weather is terrible. Winter weather with snow and sleet makes it too dangerous to be on the road…any road. You might as well leave your two-seater garaged and call an Uber.
- Police love to pull over sports cars and other two-seaters. You already know this.
- Highway driving in a two-seater isn’t easy, especially if you have a manual transmission. When you run into traffic backups on the highway, you’ll be changing gears frequently and will be lucky not to have tennis elbow by the time you get to your destination if you have a stiff racing clutch.
So now you know that two-seaters aren’t precisely the safest vehicles on the highway. However, nothing beats the feel of a powerful engine in a sleek auto body as you go down the road. Are we trying to convince you to trade your car in on a minivan? Absolutely not. Using caution, obeying the rules of the road and staying alert can usually get you to your destination safely and in style in your two-seater.