1959 Chevrolet Bel Air VS 2009 Chevrolet Malibu

[myphonyaccount]

Surface rust, dirt and paint dust are different from structural rot. X frames and unreinforced A pillars are just shoddy engineering. They simply didn't care about safety until liberal regulations made them care.

[chinookking97]

i´d say the beauty was very rusty. also, a crash from this angle is not very usual, when you drive carefully...

[Supergungun]

Not no impact but very very very little penetration

[1959chevy]

Toyota has more than one problem right now

[KotoNPoto]

@myphonyaccount

millions have died in modern cars too. I mean look at the stuff w/toyota/gm going on right now. that hasn't reached huge numbers...yet. shouldn't be happening.

not to mention stupid people driving wreckless cause 99% of wrecks anyways, not the cars, the drivers. the "safer" they make cars the more idiots like you think they're immune to getting hurt. especially assholes in SUV's.

[myphonyaccount]

@KotoNPoto Far fewer people die in newer cars than they did in older cars. Toyotas current problems are temporary and solvable by putting it in neutral. American car makers have more safety recalls than Toyota. It just sticks out more when Toyota has one.

[Vearrow]

Apparently, what Doc said to Marty in Back to The Future was wrong.

[wasjunk]

old car were meant to last forever

new cars are throw a ways

and made out of plastic so they can be recycled

in to WAL-MART bags

1959 were recycled in 09s

they will never find a 2009 in 50 years from now

[myphonyaccount]

Old cars were death traps. Millions died in them.

[myphonyaccount]

How is the test corrupt? Mild surface rust on the underbody? Dirt? Paint dust? No, it was a poorly engineered car that didn't plan for passenger safety because there were no government safety laws back then.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount mild rust my ass, you mean cancerous rust. My 1960 Chevy Bel Air had less rust and it was crappy enough to park in a High School parking lot near Oakland.

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun If you do some research you'll see that all old cars were unsafe and the death rate dropped in half since then.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount That's because they were all heavy vehicles and the amount of kinetic energy traded by them was far more than the amount of cars today.

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun Old car fan idiot, you are wrong once again. Old cars did NOT have more kinetic energy than new ones. That is not why old cars killed more people than new cars. More kinetic energy means more weight. The 09 Malibu and 59 Bel Air weighed virtually the same. You should come out of denial and get some education.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount So my 1959 Cadillac weighs the same as the Malibu bullshit? The 1959 has more mass by a noticeable amount, someone needs to do their homework.

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun This test is not of a 1959 Cadillac, which weighed over 1,000 pounds more than these two cars. But if you want, go ahead and run your 59 Cadillac into a new Cadillac which weighs only 600 pounds less. The new one will cream the old one - even if it were new off the assembly line. Old cars simply were not designed for safety. Argue and deny it all you want.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount That chrome bumper, if not rusted over like this one, would rip through plastic like a knife through butter.

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun Plastic bumpers are only a cover for a metal bumper underneath. If old cars were safer than new cars, why have death rates dropped in half?

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount I didn't see metal when the Malibu hit the FENDER of the 59 (the 59 directly hit the Malibu but the Malibu only hit the FENDER of the 59 so no wonder there was so little resistance)

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun Denialist, if you look at the overhead shot, you can see the cars hitting each other where frame rails would have been. It was a fair fight. Stop sounding like some angry southerner upset that the north won the civil war and that now he will have to do his own manual labor.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount I noticed the Malibu ONLY pierced the Fender, if you look in the middle you notice no impact. It's like a plastic arrow going through a hole in a suit of METAL chain link armor.

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun If you look at the overhead shot you can clearly see the 59 is hit very near it's middle point which means it's pathetic X frame rail was also hit. It was just a poorly designed vehicle for safety, that's all.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount From every angle its the fender skirts.

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun Nope, sorry, you're wrong and in denial. Old cars are crap. Plain and simple. Not designed for safety.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount At least they're not 90% plastic :D you actually got what you paid for back then.

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun A new 09 Malibu that weighs the same as a 59 Bel Air is obviously not made of plastic. Plastic doesn't weigh that much. The difference is new cars use the metal smarter in areas where strength is needed, in the skeleton, not as trim, or extra thick sheet metal that doesn't protect in a crash.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount We're so cheap what used to be chrome trim has become rubber! God the automotive companies have become greedy pigs.

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun It's not greed, it's waste. Metal trim dents and causes damage to the other car. Rubber absorbs impact and doen't cause damage to either car. Metal trim also weighs a lot and that wastes gas. We can't drill our way out of massive consumption.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount Do you agree that the ugly rubber trim is actually attractive? How do you honestly think those ugly jelly bean cars have anything on the real automobiles we once had?

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun There is nothing unattractive about body color rubber moldings when designed with some integration and flair. Old cars had worlds more style, but none of the practicality of modern cars. The realities of cost, space, fuel economy and safety are ones that should never be trumped by style. However, there are plenty of attractive cars that meet all the practical requirements, just not as glamorously as a 59 Cadillac.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount @myphonyaccount New cars are all the same and have no soul. I'd rather have a soul than drive a POS jelly bean. PS Rubber molding dries out in the sun, cracks, and falls off leaving the metal underneath vulnerable to rust.

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun If your soul is defined by the car you drive, then you never had a soul. And you're sticking to old notions about old rubber moldings because you want to believe them. New cars are better. Try one, you'll see.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount I did, that's why my opinions are so strong.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount And so potent against you. New cars are ugly, soulless, have no leg room, or trunk space.

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun There are plenty of new cars with lots of legroom and big trunks. The dashboards come out farther and there are center consoles, people sit lower, but they are very comfortable on long drives unlike old cars which were notorious for driver fatigue. If somebody is so obese they can't fit into a modern car, maybe they have lifestyle and health issues that need to be addressed rather than demanding bigger and fatter cars to accommodate their problems.

[Supergungun]

@myphonyaccount I think its the other way around. People are much more obese than they used to be

[chinookking97]

@myphonyaccount I tried, but io didnt see!

[chinookking97]

@myphonyaccount That ´59 impala with 300 hp needs some 15 liters of fuel per 100 km... that´s not that bad.

and they ARE practical.

[chinookking97]

@myphonyaccount it wasn´t a fair fight. look, the ´59 was old and rusty... and the malibu not!

[myphonyaccount]

@Supergungun The chrome bumper was obviously not rusted. The chassis was simply of poor construction and not designed for safety.

[myphonyaccount]

Old cars just weren't designed for driver or passenger safety. Old car Taliban can deny it all they want.

[wasjunk]

@myphonyaccount

if they are so good, why are they bankrupt?

[myphonyaccount]

The Malibu is very good. Other new GM products are crap. But they are improving. GM will be repaying it's government loans in full by June 2010.

[myphonyaccount]

All the car collector idiots running around insisting old cars are safer just make themselves look really stupid. They say the IIHS is a corrupt organization that got paid by chevy to do this test, they say IIHS sells airbags, they have all kinds of conspiracy theories but really, the truth hurts, they own crappy old cars and don't want to admit it.

[wasjunk]

we dont care if there safer

old cars were all we had back then

we were waiting til the 09s came out

it was 50 yrs later and 09 s are here

thnx god we r free at last

[myphonyaccount]

This is great! Now people will know older cars aren't safer. Yay!

[Zando24]

Not many people say they are