Quote:
Originally Posted by ckissick
That video of the orange vanagon truck hitting the wall is misleading. It was going about 60 mph and, they say, had about a ton of steel in the back. Real crash tests on vanagons are very good. In a head-on between a vanagon and a Volvo wagon, the Volvo dummy dies and the vanagon dummy walks away.
A '61 VW truck on the other hand...
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Yes, a vanagon has very stiff beams running under the floors all the way to the bumper, and in most crash tests the vanagon crushes the other car while itself not deforming very much at all.
This is not as good as having a modern crumple zone - the vanagon driver is more likely to suffer foot/leg injuries - but the vanagon driver isn't actually likely to be flattened. The driver also sits high, and much of the force goes under his seat.
I've seen pictures of vanagons that have been in frontal impacts and the driver/passenger compartment is intact.
Bottom-line, it is a reasonably safe vehicle by the standards of its time (1980s) even if modern cars are much safer.