Here is a recent rear end collision between a new modern car and some good ol Detroit Iron! It did knock the license plate off the Chrysler.
5 bucks and its fixed. We wonder why insurance rates are so high since the newer car likely has many many thousands in damage.
This should be a case study to insurance scholars
I remember back in the day a fellow bumped me at a light while driving a chrome bumper car. Neither car had damage and we shook hands and went on our way. Now such a wreck would cost thousands.
Well, in the old days, one or both drivers would have ended up in the hospital as the lack of crumple zones would have transmitted all of the kinetic energy into the bodies of the drivers. The cost to insurance on the hospitalization and transport would have been many thousands of dollars.
In this case the rear car absorbed most of the impact and both drivers probably had scratches and bumps at worst. Given a choice, I think the modern solution (bend the iron, save the bodies) is a better choice.
This is an example of nostalgic thinking where we forget to include all aspects of the outcomes. I would not trade the safety of my 2025 Mazda CX-90 for any of my older cars. I feel supremely safe in it with the knowledge that it has exceptional crash scores. I’ll gladly pay the insurance premiums to repair it if necessary.
I used to live on a road with a significant hill and 45 mph speed limit. There was a near head on collision in front of my house. One car was a more modern design, the other did not have air bags or any modern design features. The guy in the modern car had a bloody nose and lip and was walking around in a daze. The kid driving the older car ended up unconscious in the passenger footwell and died a couple days later in the hospital…
Im just trying to point out that insurance costs are thru the roof because damage in small fender benders has reached a new peak cost. I highly doubt that this would ha e been a serious crash if these were both older tanks. Especially if they were 1970s tanks with energy absorbing features built into the bumpers.
Oh come on. That car was totaled. The streets were icy and I was stopped at a signal light. First day the girl had her license she plowed into the back of my 59 Pontiac. I don’t know what her damage was but I lost a back up lamp and some painting for $125. No hospital bill, no injury, no back problems. But I was in school and needed the money.
Crumple zones are in the front with the air bags to protect drivers when the hit trees or other cars.
This place is a little crazy today but I had a lady back her Durango into my Pontiac in the drive through lane. Don’t do that. She punched a hole in my plastic bumper, headlight, some hood and fender repair and painting. Final bill was $3000. So yeah what would have been a bumper kiss turns into an expensive repair. Glad the air bags didn’t deploy or I could have been injured.
I don’t know what year the car was but a friend hit a deer on the interstate. Car was still drivable but they got pretty banged up from the air bags. Crumple zones, air bags, plastic bumpers, fir your own good ya know.
I’d also add that modern cars tend to be more reliable, use less fuel, and offer modern conveniences. Someone posted a picture of 1960s-era Los Angeles the other day, covered in smog. Personally, I’ll drive a “more expensive to repair” car and breathe cleaner air any day of the week.
In 1970 I never had a problem breathing then come the fires in Canada causing smoke over the whole state of minnesota. Go ahead and thing emissions has cleaned the air up. Maybe it has in bee York or la but not everywhere. Clean up your forests Canada.
All this shows is that big wins in a collision. If the Chrysler hit a comparably sized modern vehicle, it would be a mess and so would the passengers of the Chrysler.
Now just think if the rear vehicle would have been newer and or equipped with a Pre-Collision System, it would have slammed on the brakes and neither vehicle would have had any damage or very little… lol
And that 1973 New Yorker would destroy a modern car, heck it would about cut a full size truck or SUV in half if it T-boned it, that car is a beast, My buddy bought one that we stripped down, removed the entire (100%) of the wiring harness without cutting any of it, (put the 440/727 in another car), removed 100% of the suspension front and rear, stripped the doors of everything, the only thing left was the frame and body with bumpers and front and rear glass (removed the door glass)… Anyway, the tow truck driver still had a very hard time dragging the hollowed out carcass on the roll back and we still got a good bit of scrap $$$ form the remains…
But I would bet if 2 of those New Yorkers met head on at speed, neither driver would live to talk about it…
Don’t get me wrong, I Love the old Mopar’s, but I’d rather be in my 2023 truck with Toyota’s Safety Sense with it’s 8(+) air bags in a wreck, or even better, it helping me avoid the wreck to begin with…
+1
This would be a good time to re-play the IIHS video showing a collision between a full-size '59 Chevy Bel Air sedan and a 2009 Chevy Malibu. Clearly, in a real-world crash the driver and passengers of the '59 model would either have died or would have been severely crippled for life. And, the far-superior passenger protection of that 2009 Malibu has been exceeded by almost every passenger vehicle made in the intervening 16 years.
Sometimes nostalgia for the past gets in the way of science and present improvements. Many current situations in our world seems to fall into this category.
Bigger and heavier and “made of metal” isn’t always better.
Yeah I understand your comments. But a real life event was when that Plymouth plowed into the side of my VW at 30 mph. I was lucky. I had a sunroof so I could get out. My next car was a heavy 59 Pontiac. Nice to see the front end crashes, but side impacts on even new cars are not fun. Not many 59 chevys or pontiacs on the road anymore so point taken.
I don’t dispute all the new safety features but I do suspect many people have come to depend on them. The best crash is one you don’t have.
