Why american car are not as tough as they used to be.?

Question

I saw a car accident with a 70's Cadillac and a modern Honda( like 99 to 03) i didn't focus to much.

The Honda rear ended the Cadillac and the Cadilac literally had just a scrape on it and the honda had a very dented hood and bumper and the engine was visible.

my dad told me when he used to own his chevy before he sold it. people would avoid hitting him

Answer 1

>> Cadilac literally had just a scrape on it

Actually that is NOT a good thing.  Car designers work very hard to design crumple zone.  They found that when the car does NOT crumble, it is the passengers who take the bumping.

When the car crumbles, the occupants only hit the front at very slow speed.  But if the car is built like a tank (old design), the car essentially come to a quick stop, and you hit a "wall"

Good Luck...

Answer 2

Fighter is right. A car that crumples and has airbags is desigend to do just that to keep the driver and passengers safe.The Cad and your dads or chevy may not crumple but all that energy is passed onto the occupants in the car or truck. Watch the cable channels and watch how they make indy cars. 200 miles an hour and into a wall and be able to walk away sounds really tough to me. Look at NASCAR racing, flip and burn and still walk away. And yes a roll cage and the saftey stuff is in them, but metal still bends at 180 MPH plus, and in a honda or whatever its how it does or does not bend that counts

Answer 3

Old cars were made in a time when fuel mileage was not a concern... Today, fuel mileage is a big concern so the automakers have to get creative to make their cars lighter.

To do this, they use thinner gage sheet metal, aluminum alloys and even fiberglass to lighten the load.

Yes that Honda will not win a run in with an old caddy, but that Caddy will have to stop to fill up MANY more times than the Honda.

Answer 4

The older the car was the heavier the metal in them , I have a similar story from the sixties , My grandfather was driving his car in Peterborough Ontario and a kid trying to out run the police went through the light and hit my grandfather. When they dragged him from the car all he could say was " It had to be a tank that I hit." He was driving a 64 Pontiac and it was totaled , My grandfather was driving a 32 model B with real iron in it..

Crumple zones are just another way to plan obsolete vehicles and keep the prices up so you have to replace them.

I believe if they built them like they used to and had seat belts and airbags in them that we would be a whole lot safer than the accordion aluminum foil cars we drive now.