Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 11:34:33 +0100
Reply-To: Calle Fallberg <calle.fallberg@SWIPNET.SE>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Calle Fallberg <calle.fallberg@SWIPNET.SE>
Subject: Volvo vs Vanagon, some "(F)acts"
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
Hi Vanagoneers!
Like the rest of you I´ve taken great interest in the crash-test photos, having somwhere deep hidden a vauge idea that I´ve heard it before and looking at the pic´s unzipped my memory!
The test was initiated by a guy who thinks of himself as the "swedish Ralph Nader".
The whole idea was to disencourage the inreasing swedish family interest in "mini-vans" as a family car and point people towards large estate - wagons instead.
The general idea wasn´t ALL bad since japanese minivans as well as the early VW buses were really weak up front, wich resulted in horrifying leg injuries,especially when hitting a hard vehicle like the Volvo !
(FYI the crash testers separates hard and soft cars, based on weather the car has a rigid outer structure and demolishes the object it crashes into without much traces on itself or if it crumbels wich by todays standards are the better since it puts less G-force on the passengers.)
Anyway, this guy decided to give the people a lession so he ordered a test crash, picking what he thought of as the perfect example, a really hard, domestic, well reputated safety-first car : The Volvo 745 and an infamous soft highrisk car as the VW bus, overlooking the fact that with the change from Kleinbus to Vanagon, the VW had really reinforced the body with the radiatorframe, the sparewheel and all the beams underneath the front bumper.
With the two hard cars going head on, the result was like when a boat goes too fast into the shore, the Vanagon climbed up on top of the Volvo, and nearly shaved the roof off !!
A disaster for the would like to be Ralph Nader who dropped off , blushing, with his tail between his legs!!!!
The question is what would have happened with a softer opponent :-?
I guess nobody´ll ever know BUT from an accident a couple of years ago outside my home town when a Rabbit did send a totalled Vanagon pickup sliding on its side down into a ditch and with the driver of the Rabbit being uninjured in spite of a head on collision my attitude has been that WHAT EVER CAR YOU`RE IN,AVOID CLOSE CONTACT , wich could also do as a bumper sticker ;-)
Drive safe.......
Calle
-88 Vanagon
Mullhyttan, Sweden
[text/html]
| 
