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J75
Samba Member
Joined: March 10, 2006
Posts: 100
Location: East LaHave, Nova Scotia
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 Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 5:21 am Post subject: Side Impact Safety in 1980 Vanagon? |
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This summer I was broad sided on the passenger side of my 2002 VW jetta with my 5 year old boy sitting in back. The car held strength well and he only suffered some small cuts and a bang on his head, and the car was wrote off.
Problem now is my wife and I are thinking what would have happened if I would have been in my 1980 Westy and that lady smashed into the sliding door, would the door just push in and cause huge amounts of damage and pain? Does anyone have anything positive to say about vanagons in accidents before I put my Westy up for sale?
Jon |
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Williamtaylor33
Samba Member
Joined: September 07, 2007
Posts: 1545
Location: Arkansas
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stormforge
Samba Member
Joined: May 05, 2009
Posts: 355
Location: Adirondacks NY
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:44 am Post subject: |
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Do check some of the other discussions. I think the short answers are:
Is it a deathtrap? NO -- V.W. put a lot of engineering into safety for the Vanagons. It was a very safe vehicle for its time. The sliding door is solid and has strong catches to reduce the chance of it buckling or opening in a collision. The vehicle as a whole is very heavily built. Passengers ride high and autos that hit the Vanagon tend to fare badly.
Is it as safe as the safest modern cars? NO -- if safety is your ONLY concern you need something else.
Do I trust my children to my Sycnro? YES -- more so than to my little commuter compact car, perhaps a bit less so than to my new Subaru Outback with all the safety features.
Do your own research and determine what your personal risk threshold is. Everyone's answer will be a little different.
Cheers,
-Bill
'89 Syncro |
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mightyart
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2004
Posts: 6188
Location: Portland, Oregon
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 8:16 am Post subject: |
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If you would have gotten hit in the Westy, everybody in it would have been fine, the lady that hit you might need some help.
IF you look at what a car is hitting on the side (because the van is so high up) it's hitting the floor and the side, not just the side.
The biggest saddness would be that the Westy got wrecked, and they are expensive to fix right, and or replace anymore. I've never worried about getting hurt in an accident in the Westy, I'm more worried about it getting wrecked.
Vanagons are like SUVs, pretty safe for the occupants, not so much for the other person involved in the accident. |
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RicoS
Samba Member
Joined: December 02, 2006
Posts: 583
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 8:44 am Post subject: |
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| mightyart wrote: |
If you would have gotten hit in the Westy, everybody in it would have been fine, the lady that hit you might need some help.
IF you look at what a car is hitting on the side (because the van is so high up) it's hitting the floor and the side, not just the side.
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Some leap in logic here.
All I can offer to this discussion (just like everyone else) is purely anecdotal, but I once center-punched a Ford F250 while I was doing about 50 mph in a Volvo 240. I was accelerating fairly hard and about to snatch 3rd gear when I hit him. After the dust settled, the Ford looked like a huge boomerang and the core support of the 240 was against its firewall.
Now, that F250 was pretty heavy and it road fairly high, yet I unbuckled myself and stepped out of the Volvo while the other guy was being loaded into the meat wagon.
Must have been a transfer of momentum kinda thing.
Richie the Unscathed |
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noganav
Samba Member
Joined: January 06, 2006
Posts: 1236
Location: San Diego CA
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| Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 9:52 am Post subject: |
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The only problem with a Westy is what happens to the cabinets when the body gets severely bent. There's a few posts on here showing pictures of cabinets that look more like matchsticks after a hard driver's side impact.
That said, an accident bad enough to explode the cabinets is bad enough to hurt you in any car. All indications are that these are safe vehicles. Volvo safe? Maybe not. Send the other guy off on a meat platter safe? Probably, if that's your thing  |
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