Crash Test Video: 1959 Chevy Bel Air vs. 2009 Chevy Malibu
September 29, 2009 by Larry
Filed under Automotive, Chevrolet, Featured, Video
Ever wonder what would happen if a 50 year old car crashed into a late model vehicle? Clearly, it would demonstrate how far we have come in the last 50 years in terms of vehicle crash safety. Here is a video to demonstrate just that from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
The video below is dedicated to saluting the insurance industry and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for their efforts to reduce deaths, injuries and property damage. Enjoy!
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GIANNA on Wed, 2nd Dec 2009 3:33 am
Notice how the old Chevy desintegrate. It’s easy to do that with NO ENGINE in the old car. They took out the engine, and that’s why the video it’s always “cut” when the hood of the old Chevy pops up (up – left – right, always cut at the right moment!).What a shame!
AZ on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 11:43 am
Gianna, you really need to do some research before posting – by Dec 2, almost 3 months passed after the video was first shown, and THOUSANDS of discussions were all over the internet about this. Typical lack of knowledge about cars, physics, overall science and technology is going on all the message boards. This is the STANDARD 40 MPH offset crash test all new cars go under, usually into a wall, but sometimes they compare cars. And a little research would have shown you the 1959 was a complete, good condition car, with an inline 6 cylinder engine. And no, the old car does not weigh a lot more than the new one – only 179 pounds more. There are lots of before and after pictures of both cars from every angle all over the internet. You will see the passenger compartment collapses on the old car and kills the driver because there is no STRUCTURE between the engine compartment and passenger compartment. The new car has structural steel all around where the passengers sit. The old car’s poorly designed x-frame structure is down below, under where the passengers sit, and above is just hollow sheet metal, totally useless in protecting the passengers in anything but a very low speed crash, like maybe 15 or 20 mph. Even at that speed, with no seatbelts, there would be severe injuries to the driver in a frontal crash.
Clair Clason on Fri, 26th Feb 2010 5:44 pm
very true there is not much more weight on the ‘59 than there is on the ‘09 but I guarantee that if they compared a ‘72 to an ‘09 then there would be almost nothing left to the ‘09 because then they put big block V-8s in almost everything so there is the weight difference plus they used thicker steel and stronger motor mounts so the engine was almost perfectly stationary and if the mounts failed then the firewall that was welded rather than bolted, unlike in the ‘59, you would be walk away almost every time.