# Video: They don't make cars like they used to, this is why that's a good thing **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 22, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-they-dont-make-cars-like-they-used-to-this-is-why-thats-a-good-thing/746820 "2016-02-22T18:22:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-they-dont-make-cars-like-they-used-to-this-is-why-thats-a-good-thing/746820/21 "2016-02-29T03:24:31Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Bullshit. I remember the decade or so that Detroit fought air bags tooth and nail. And it wasn’t just GM, it was all of them. > > Their concern with safety totally lost out to their concern with profits. But it wasn’t Detroit. It was, to quote you, “all of them.” Airbags were optional equipment, available for a price. Even standard on higher-end cars. The fight was against the legislation requiring them on passenger vehicles and light trucks. Sure, there’s a profit motive there, but at the time, people weren’t even wearing seatbelts, which arguably would have save more lives. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-they-dont-make-cars-like-they-used-to-this-is-why-thats-a-good-thing/746820/22 "2016-02-29T12:20:23Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > They were just two Impalas. The Impala might have been the top-selling car in '59, but definitely wasn’t in '09. They probably picked the Impala because it was a reasonably well-selling car in '09 that just so happened to have a nameplate that went back 50 years. There weren’t any '59 Camrys or '09 Galaxies to smash up! It was because that was the basic, mainstream Chevrolet from back then. In '59 the Biscayne, Bel Air, and Impala were basically trim levels of the same car. As for it being “slightly unfair” that the Bel Air had an X-frame, that doesn’t matter. 1) that’s what was on the road back then, and 2) it doesn’t really matter what kind of frame in under there when a collision just rips the body free of the frame mounts and collapses. The whole point to modern automotive structural design is to design the forward structure to crumple in a controlled fashion. The front “subframe” rails are designed to collapse like an accordion; the energy from the collision is partially dissipated as the metal being accordioned gets very hot. It also reduces the mechanical shock impulse felt by the occupants of the car, which reduces the chance of neck injuries once the colliding vehicle reaches the rigid passenger cage. Put it this way- there are four times the number of cars/trucks on the road today vs. 1959, yet our on road fatality rate is less than half. That video shows why. Complaining about frame types is completely missing the point. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-they-dont-make-cars-like-they-used-to-this-is-why-thats-a-good-thing/746820/23 "2016-03-01T11:37:01Z")
If you prefer graphs to videos > **[Driving Safety, in Fits and Starts](https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/17/science/driving-safety-in-fits-and-starts.html)** > > Auto fatalities have been falling for decades, but in a very interesting plateau-drop pattern. > **[Safety in Numbers: Charting Traffic-Safety and Fatality Data](https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15125690/safety-in-numbers-charting-traffic-safety-and-fatality-data/)** > > Traffic deaths are at an all-time low—our timeline shows how they got there. The video was created to tell the same story more dramatically. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-they-dont-make-cars-like-they-used-to-this-is-why-thats-a-good-thing/746820.md?page=1)