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Thu Jul 14, 2005 8:46 pm

There has been the question of Beetle crash safety raised here a few times recently. YOu might be interested to know that the German body that does crash testing in that country fairly recently tested 3 VWs in current tests to see how well things have progressed over the last 40 years. The test included taking the car and running it into a wall at 40mph. The cars were an early '70s Beetle, a Golf 2 ('85-'92) and a Golf 4.

The Golf 4 by far and away did the best, with little intrusion into the cabin of the car. However, it might surprise you that the Beetle outperformed the Golf 2, according to the article, as its structure held up noteably better.

I would defintely rather be in the newest Golf but it might make anyone who feels the Beetle is a total deathtrap feel a little better to know that it performed better than a car whose design was 40 years newer.

Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:06 am

everything is a deathtrap no matter what just depends on what happens

Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:11 am

Was it a Super Beetle or a standard? The Super had some redesigns that made it safer than the standard. Still, for a company that used to make a big deal about its attention to safety, the test results are surprising.

Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:12 am

Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:20 am

Mike, thanks for that info. Do you know if there was an article written about this by a German car magazine where I could find a link? Or at least the name of the agency?

25 years ago I worked at VW's R&D center in Wolfsburg Germany, right in the vehicle safety development group (crash test dummy :o ). The product liability group, which dealt almost exclusively with cases from the USA, was in the same department. While initially there as a trainee, I viewed some older movies that the group had taken in their crash center, to re-enact specific vehicle crashes using VW products involved in liability claims. The main emphasis was to demonstrate at case trials that VWs of that era ('60's and '70's) were at least as comparable to domestic cars (USA produced) available at that time, as measured by their deformation behavior in crashes. Most of these crashes were not simple head-on into a wall, but could involve another car (usually not a VW) at a skewed angle, or if the VW was alone in the mishap, then it could be sliding on its side, etc. Such tests were laboriously set up and carefully conducted outdoors.

VW was already very pro-active on safety back then. Do you remember the deluxe Rabbits which had the single shoulder safety belt attached to the door, and the knee bar? That system was first tested and developed on a Beetle in the early '70's. And that motorized single belt on some Scirocco II's? That was another VW development, although a major Japanese car maker saw this system during the final stages of testing while visiting the R&D center, and rushed it to production ahead of VW!

Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:29 am

Ahh, Glenn answered my question while I was typing. Thanks! ADAC (listed on the Beetle's door) is the German equivalent to our AAA. Looks like they used a "stripper" base Beetle (no engine lid louvers for the bigger engine) for this test. Note in this photo that Euro-market '74 Beetles did not have the big bumpers and other body reinforcements like the US models did which would have a positive influence in such an impact.

ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil Club) is a bit more active than our AAA in the German auto industry. They publish a yearly report which lists the number of roadside breakdowns per vehicle model and manufacturer (indicating vehicle reliability), "crash performance" ratings of new cars for insurance company rates, etc. Such results are widely published in general German news outlets, kinda like how "Consumer Reports" is followed here.

Also realize that in the early 80's when I worked at VWAG, the NHTSA frontal impact test requirement was "only" 30mph. Forces at 40mph are orders of magnitude greater. There is nothing left of the front end of this Beetle, and looks like those doors would not open due to the creasing effect at the front seam... That;s quite a surprise that the Golf2 was "worse".

Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:46 am

great picture

Fri Jul 15, 2005 8:01 am

Looks like they ran it into a Snap-on tool chest. Wow, they are really well built! :wink:

JP

79' Vert

Fri Jul 15, 2005 8:06 am

If someone can spot that article/report, I would love to get a copy.

Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:05 pm

Glenn, it looks like you read the same thing I did-that is one of the pics in it.

I also was watchin something on auto safety on TV last week, there were a couple of shots of a 70s Beetle with an airbag going off-I'd like to see some more info on that!

Rome, yeah I know that system-it saved my cousin's life. In about '84 she was driving a Rabbit with that system, and was in a head on collison with a Chevy Monza. The photos of both cars is very very scary-only one wheel on the Rabbit was touching the ground. My cousin ended up in the hospital for a while-the majority of the seatbelt left a purple indentation across her-but she recovered fully. The other driver was killed. This was before people commonly wore seatbelts, and I am certian that if the Rabbit did not have that system, my cousin would not have had hers on.

Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:49 pm

if those big name car companies werent so greedy we might have given the tucker a chance and he could have change auto safety to something completely different. i tell ya that guy was a genius.