Progress
 

Rather shocking.
I had erroneously assumed that the older 'more metal' cars were stronger.

Neat.

I would say a 2009 Malibu wouldn't fair too well against a mid to late 1970s GM vehicle say a 1976 Grand Prix. Those were reinforced tanks. It's amazing how the 09 Malibu pushed its way into the BelAir driver compartment rather easily.

Now run the BelAir into a 2009 Hyundai. The Hyundai may not fair so well.

That poor, poor car! :(

Keep in mind that despite being 7" wider and more than 17" shorter, the Malibu only weighs 200lb less than the Bel Air. So even aside from design considerations, it's substantially denser than the '59.

But but but but...GM is an evil corporation that doesn't care about crash standards or their customers, only their bottom line and corporate jets!!!!11!!one!

And has side-impact beams, and probably stouter pillars, firewalls and shock towers. 50 years ago they didn't use CAD to design the sheetmetal for optimal rigidity. Pretty common sense.

Like I said, even aside from design. If you're referring to exterior sheetmetal, it's absolutely not designed for rigidity in most modern cars. All the strength is in the unibody. The sheetmetal is essentially skin.

Of course, on an old body-on-frame sedan, there's almost no structural hard parts more than a foot or so off the ground. It's pretty much all skin. As 101 mentioned, against a heavy unibody car like a '73 Imperial, they'd be pulling pieces of Malibu out of the walls.

Ah, I didn't even think about the construction. That makes sense.

Leading the World in Safety....GM

They have an interior shot in this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xwYBBpHg1I