# ABS brakes on cars, great but expensive?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abs-brakes-on-cars-great-but-expensive/7598>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 17, 2000, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abs-brakes-on-cars-great-but-expensive/7598 "2000-02-17T01:15:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![pmh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@pmh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pmh)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2000, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abs-brakes-on-cars-great-but-expensive/7598/21 "2000-02-20T07:19:00Z")

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Thanks sly. (I think “hogwash” may have been a bit strong though. The next sentence did ask for info I had missed.)

From the same site:

> [@](#):
>
> Drivers of cars equipped with ABS are not colliding with other vehicles or pedestrians as often as drivers of cars without ABS.  
> The study, however, shows that current ABS-  
> equipped cars have a higher involvement rate, than cars without ABS, in side impacts and in fatal rollovers. The increase in these loss-  
> of- control type crashes is surprising in view of the good performance of ABS in stopping tests conducted by the agency and  
> others. NHTSA is not yet certain that the observed increase is a direct consequence of the ABS system and/or the driver’s interaction with ABS.

The cite goes on to speculates that the “loss of control” crashes were probably less severe than the crashes that were avoided by application of the ABS.  
Bottom line: **fatalities** in ABS equipped cars are reduced by more than 20% (wrt to non-ABS cars of the same model). That’s enough to change my mind. I now believe ABS is a good idea.

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**Author:** ![Diver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@Diver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diver)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2000, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abs-brakes-on-cars-great-but-expensive/7598/22 "2000-02-20T15:35:00Z")

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jaydabee said:  
The system appears to have over pressurized the system, blowing out both rear wheel cylinders and damaging the ABS unit.

This seems odd. The ABS system works by reducing the pressure to selected brake cylinders, not by increasing pressure.

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