Date:         Wed, 12 Oct 94 10:33:09 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "J. Walker" <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      front end smashing

granted that the front end of all our buses are its weakest point, but
one of the things that increases this weekness is the tendency for the
front end to 'dip' and get lower when you slam on the brakes. this rather
lessens the protection of those big frame members down there, and allows
the drunk driver to come right over the top of the bumpers ... and into
your legs.

my insurance company lists the vanagon as 'better than average' in side
impacts ... because of the height of the car and the wheels that tend to
get in the way. but they list it as 'much worse than average' in frontal
collisions.

i tend to think that 24 years of driving buses has made me a somewhat more
wary driver (most of my passengers would NOT agree with that, however) and
simply because of the no-nose of the bus.  MOST of the wrecked buses i've
seen in junkyards were roll-overs or side impacts. and most of the ones i've
seen still running around, that have nose damage, looked like they hit a
lamp-pole or something (driving round the house or parking lot without paying
tooo much attention to driving).

but i've seen some really severe stuff in the junkyards in other models of
cars, particular american cars for some reason. the mercedes and volvo seem
to just tear the hell out of the front or rear, but the passenger/driver area
seems to stay relatively unscathed. not so the american cars ... for whatever
reason, they seem to just get all messed up all over, front crush zone or no.

so are buses better cars? or just bus drivers more conscious of what they are
doing? or american cars just more numerous (and therefore more likely to wind
up in junkyards)?  who knows. i drive what i like and can afford. well, sorta.
:)  i would like to have another 914, but the lowness of that car scared me
in traffic. out on country roads, it was great!  which brings up the real
culprit to traffic safety: all those thousands of other drivers! if it wasn't
for those idiots, the roads would be perfectly safe (with just us on them). :)

joel