Testing the Crash, 50 years Later

50 years ago, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety began crashing cars into one another, and into solid objects, and rating just how well those cars stayed together.  50 years later, they're patting themselves on the back with a video comparing or pitting a 1959 chevy and a 2009 chevy.  Watch the carnage.



We often make statements suggesting that new cars are shite for construction, and that older cars are truly solid and wonderful pieces of equipment; the stories of people running into brick walls without injuries and only a minor bill from the auto shop for new paint abound.  I have an aunt who was fond of recommending old-ass, safe boat cars as new-driver fodder, because the bigger cars are considered so much safer.

This video makes me think that maybe just some of that is a bit romanticized.

I'm just glad they used a Malibu.  I hate the new versions, but only because I've driven one.  Opposite to the Mini Cooper effect, it's actually smaller inside a Malibu than it looks from the outside.  The Bel Air certainly looked better in its ugly 70s phase than it did in the 50s at least, so that's good news too.