Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 17:45:51 -0500
Reply-To: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: Vanagon crash safety
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
In all of my roughing it camping trips I never see any SUVs out in the
rough or off a paved road.
I see a few Vanagons and Bays that use the cow trails or fire breaks to
get to remote destinations.
I can't argue about a frontal assault with a giant Ford Exposition (7000)
pounds but I'm pretty confident that I'm doing as good as all the Toyota,
Subaru, Nissan etc. ect passenger vehicles.
I mention the SUVs because I see a lot of rollovers on the Interstate
Highways, its always too much speed at the heart of the wreck. I'd
hesitate to do much off roading in an SUV designed to give a smooth ride
on city streets.
My last four wheel drive was a 1975 Toyota Land Cruiser, the made for
war version that would rattle your teeth, make you curse the fuel mileage
but I pulled a many CJ5 or CJ7 out of the mud with it.
I had it up on two wheels several times and it wasn't a pleasant memory.
I often wonder who has the absolutely worst test results in crash tests.
I've never seen full sized pickups tested.
As a matter of fact almost every current test is done on luxury
automobiles, MPVs and SUVs. They just sort of skip the generic models.
Stan Wilder
83 Westfalia Air Cooled
On Mon, 8 Apr 2002 15:58:58 -0600 John Brush <jbrush@AROS.NET> writes:
> >You don't have to believe in pillows and springs and socialism to
> know
> >that the Vanagon is not very safe in a frontal collision.
>
> The only thing that would be of value is hard data, and I haven't
> seen any
> yet. Anything other than that is pure conjecture. There are many
> vehicles
> that a Vanagon would run right over the top of, so there is no way
> the
> above statement has any merit.
>
> It certainly looks to be unsafe, but then so does a vanagong going
> around
> a corner, but in truth, its pretty stable. SUVs look safe, but we
> have
> learned that they are not. Looks can be, and usually are,
> deceiving.
>
> >It's all about mass. The Vanagon has precious little where it
> counts.
>
> Its all about guessing what will happen, but not really knowing.
>
> John
>
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