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'59 vs. '09 in crash test

How would the older car have fared if it had been a model from a few years earlier, when they were still using perimeter frames? A 4-5,000 pound touring car with a big steel frame hitting a typical modern 1500-pound plastic box? Yes, no crumple zones. But the physics of a higher mass hitting a smaller one... not as dramatic a result as they got using these two vehicles, I'd wager.

I'm NOT arguing that all older cars were safer; they weren't. Most of them never came with seat belts, even. But I don't think all of them were the relative death traps that this video implies.
 
electroking said:
I don't think it is that pointless. I hate to see a nice car wasted this way
(two nice cars, when you think of it), but the number of people who believe
the big Chevy is safer is certainly not near zero......
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Crashing a 50 year old car is not saving lives.......If GM was thinking of putting a 59 back into production you'd have a point. However, that's just not the case...... this was a waste of a classic car.
 
The X-Frame cars were Junk in a crash! Belive me I know I had a 59 Belair 2 door as my first car until some lady blew a red light and destroyed the car. If I had not seen it coming and jumped to the passenger side I wouldn`t be here! Good thig I was a young kid and agile.
 
Notice, also, that this Impala was a 4-door SEDAN model, w/full door frames, & center pillars, so it SHOULD have been somewhat stronger than the "hardtop" models that had no door frames or center pillars...Another thing, these cars had-by today's standards-LOUSY brakes. Discs were unheard of, power assist was an option. They also had relatively primitive suspension systems, didn't handle as well as todays cars, & could be ordered w/engines that vastly overpowered & outclassed the rudimentary braking & handling. The typical highway in those days was a high-crowned 2-lane blacktop, w/plenty of blind curves, narrow places, & other dangers. Speed limits in those days were a lackadasically-enforced 65 MPH in a lot of places, & lmany people went considerably faster. The amazing thing is that almost ANYONE survived...
 
dokblues said:
The X-Frame cars were Junk in a crash! Belive me I know I had a 59 Belair 2 door as my first car until some lady blew a red light and destroyed the car. If I had not seen it coming and jumped to the passenger side I wouldn`t be here! Good thig I was a young kid and agile.
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I guess that's why they didn't come with seatbelts! :scratch2:
 
The car was no clunker, see here: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/as...s-the-bel-air-the-iihs-destroyed/#more-329733

Stupid, stupid, stupid, as if we didn't already know new cars were safer.

Honestly, I want to find the Suit behind this idea and slap the **** out of him.

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Sure would have liked to see the drivers side of the Malibu.

By the way we just had the same model of Malibu here for 4 days while the wifes car was in the shop. She thought it handled like a tuna boat.
 
Mark W. said:
......By the way we just had the same model of Malibu here for 4 days while the wifes car was in the shop. She thought it handled like a tuna boat.
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What does she normally drive...... an F1 car? I had an 04, which was also built on the GM Epsilon platform. I thought mine was fantastic. The new ones do look bigger, so maybe they're heavier than the 04 I had, or they've tuned the suspension differently.
 
Mark W. said:
Sure would have liked to see the drivers side of the Malibu.

By the way we just had the same model of Malibu here for 4 days while the wifes car was in the shop. She thought it handled like a tuna boat.
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My senior project engineer had her Lexus restyled by a kid in a Civic the other week. So it's in the shop. Her rental's an Impala. She's not a happy camper about it.

It doesn't look too bad, beyond that screaming "Hey look I'm a Chevy!!!!" front and rear, but she found the same complaints I had when I last drove one, notably the steering feels like poop, the turning radius is about as wide as the Hudson, and they're kinda cheesy inside still.

And it's a GM who knows how long it'll last...
 
Goodwill_HiFi said:
What does she normally drive...... an F1 car? I had an 04, which was also built on the GM Epsilon platform. I thought mine was fantastic. The new ones do look bigger, so maybe they're heavier than the 04 I had, or they've tuned the suspension differently.
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She drives a 97 Saturn SC-2 Sport coupe with 200,000 miles on it. So not quite a F-1 car.
 
nasadowsk said:
It doesn't look too bad, beyond that screaming "Hey look I'm a Chevy!!!!" front and rear, but she found the same complaints I had when I last drove one, notably the steering feels like poop, the turning radius is about as wide as the Hudson, and they're kinda cheesy inside still.

And it's a GM who knows how long it'll last...
Click to expand...

While the Impala has had many design changes it's an old W chassis that dates back to the 80s........ GM's big switchover to FWD. I've never owned one, but I wouldn't expect it to handle like a Lexus. From my prospective, GM had a really difficult time making the switch. I would expect it to be pretty reliable, Though.

Comparing an Impala to a Malibu is comparing apple and oranges. Different platforms, more than a decade apart (for the original designs), and the W being from transition days.
 
Mark W. said:
She drives a 97 Saturn SC-2 Sport coupe with 200,000 miles on it. So not quite a F-1 car.
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I've never driven an SC-2, but I remember thinking that they were kind of cool when they first came out...... if it's the Saturn that I'm thinking about. It must be the weight difference between the cars that's giving her that feeling. I bet that Saturn is super light.
 
Interesting article. I think it was a waste of a nice car-that's my opinion of course. I won't loose any sleep over it.
I think the post it does point out how some get too worried about what happens to something they might like, but don't own, or have a real vested interest in.
I complete waste of time and energy IMHO.
 
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