OP, I'm more interested in your driving technique. Was there more you could have done on time w/ your most recent experience? Catching these things ahead of time and communicating w/ the drivers behind is the key (as obvious as that may sound). It's easier said than done, but you get my point. A nice 2-3 second following distance allows you to brake harder, a lot earlier, while warning others behind you all while giving your self time to get your shit together. Using hazards helps. Sure there are different weather conditions and blind hills that make this a lot harder to nearly impossible to avoid but it's ultimately yours (driver's) responsibility to do your part (not just avoid the car in front of you). And in your case, if it was where you had hard time coming to a stop before rear-ending someone (hopefully you can touch on that situation), I would've played it safe and used the shoulder even if I had the safety net for a complete safe stop.
Your wife's smart and has an excellent point.
Imagine your kids in the rear of that mk6 golf (with pics in this thread). Scary!!!
For these rear end collisions, which are out of your control for the most part (like sitting at a light), I prefer my kid to be forward facing (<age of 2).
Hi gti330ex, Good question. It's mostly just bad luck. The two times I've been hit, I've been hit because I didn't turn right on red in front of a semi. I've been hit because a girl two cars back hit the car behind me. The semi that came to a screeching halt next to me was a good 10 seconds behind me in traffic and I was sitting at a red light, and the incident I described, I had already come to a complete stop for around 5 seconds (all traffic stopped) but there was a significant gap between me and the next car behind me.
Thank goodness the car last week had the forethought to use the shoulder, and do what they could to avoid traffic. I saw him coming and did what I could to avoid taking a full on smash and gave him enough room to maneuver past me. It all worked out.
With the PP brakes and PSS tires, I am VERY conscious of how quickly I slow down, and let the drivers behind me know what's happening. The issues and concerns all stem from being at a standstill with on the HWY during a jam, or at a light. Many of our roads are 60-70 mph speed limits with traffic lights, the speed of traffic in some cases is closer to 80.
As far as how I normally drive, I drive like I am in a motorcycle, pretend I am invisible, and stay out of blind spots and travel at a slightly higher pace than traffic. I log around 25k miles total a year, 15k in my car, and 10k in my wife's truck. On her truck I've upgraded the suspension, tires, brakes, and lights.
Anyone in the back of that Mk6 would be in for a bad time.
I cross shopped a MB E350 and BMW 535i when I bought the GTI because it was more fun to drive and cheaper. So I get reminded of that too.
I'll keep the GTI for now, but the kids are verboten from riding in it, and that means the car will just be used to drive my 60 miles a day through heavily congested traffic. So it loses some of it's allure and the reason I bought it, but at least I can hold onto it a bit longer. To assuage my wife's concerns I'm doing the 5 brake light mod, adding a light (with motorcycle strobe) to my hitch, but it's essentially a single seater car now.