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