I know I can't be the only one who knows just how sturdy these things are. After watching some old UK Top Gear episodes and seeing some crash tests talking about the safety of cars, I started to think about how safe my car is. Honestly even with my glass T-tops, I would trust this car in an accident (minus a complete roll over) more than any other vehicle. Over the 5 1/2 years of owning this car, and a decade in driving cars I have seen my share of motor collisions, and thought I would share the beautiful results for fun.

In my thirdgen I have had 3 vehicle on vehicle collisions, all of which I was not at fault.

The first was at my school, a kid backed up into me with his Lexus, i had no damage whereas his bumper had a plethora of cracked and chipped paint, nothing major though.

The second, a week after the first was me at a dead stop in traffic leaving school when a fellow student came flying around a corner in an old pickup
and rear ended me at around 45 mph, I saw him fast enough to prepare for impact so I had no damage to myself. My bumper had a 3"-4" scratch on it and he walked away with a completely smashed bumper and dented push bar which amazed me

The last was a girl not properly stopping and drove out in front of me from a blind corner, causing a T-bone into her Corolla at around 30 mph. The end result being a whole drivers side smashed and crumpled, a drivers door barely opening, and broken glass and my little Camaro got a chip the size of a quarter on the very tip of the nose.

I have also launched the whole front end of the car up onto a median after the car got away from me a bit while playing the rain , which to my utter surprise did nothing to the car, not even an alignment issue.

All of this has resulted in my friends referring to my car as the tank because nothing seems to really hurt all the much. I just thought I would share my little experience with this and maybe get some other neat stories of how these things just roll with the punches.

 

Crushed cars are annoying to repair when in slower speed collisions, they will fare better in high speed collisions. The more a car folds up in a collision, the more energy it absorbs (not transferred to cockpit(driver), thus the safer the car will be.


The most reveling shot is the Bel Air dash view, you can see the dash hit the driver then "relax" back several inches to its final resting position.

 

i call bs on your stories, just sayin

 

I agree total B.S. I've bean driving for over 30 years and have seen first hand what kind of damage can happen to a thirdgen. The only part of your story that may be true is the first accident, , If the truck rear ended you at 45 mph your car would have bean totaled, your rear bumper would be close to your rear tires,
If you T boned someone at 30 mph Your front end would be much shorter, fenders crumpled, hood bent up.
Really who are you trying to fool here, There have bean plenty of people on this site that have bean in accidents with these cars and have shown what there cars looked like after the accidents. I don't there is one member here who is going to believe your story.

 

 

I kinda agree with them. I call bs to. unless theres been some heavy mod to the cars body those accidents would of totaled it.

I now when my rear end got loose in the parking lot of kogar and hit the rail guard (not even 10mph I mind you) I lost my rear bumper coner, completely crushed in.

 

BS these cars are solid same gas tank and engine going330k strong I went over a curb at 45 mph

 

jumping carbs doesn't rly affect the body, that's all in the suspension. and with after market parts beening decent to cheap, almost everyone has switched their parts.

as for the gas tank/engine/trans lasting 330k miles, my uncle had a chevy for 30 years, 456k miles, never needed to replace anything big (like a motor/gas tank/trans/rear) but he took good care of his car, followed the manufactior's recommend service interveils (which he did himself) the state of Michigan had to total the car (wasn't in an accident tho) bc it was so rusted, a quarter panel fall off lmao, gotta love that Michigan salt.

 

we all realize im calling bs on his thirdgen accidents not the bel air right, we all know an all steel car is a tank, a thirdgen is far from it

 

I guess I am just lucky then, I wouldn't be making stuff up on here as that is pathetic. I have had some amazing luck with my car and what it has gone through. I always take pictures of every accident so if I find them I will post them too. But call BS all you want, it's all true...

 

Im not to keen on the whole Bel Aire vs Malibu thing. Two different cars from two different eras. Its like comparing an F-16 to a P-51 and calling the P-51 junk. I don't like that. Just my opinion.

On the whole third gen accident thing. I have personally seen these cars get racked up real good, and the driver open the door and walk away. I will always vouch for the safety of these cars. I hit a minivan at over 50 mph, caught it in the right front corner, both seat back locks broke, sheared the heads off of the bolts holding the under dash panels on, Drove the radiator (custom made 4 core) into the engine fan. I walked away unhurt.
Will post a pic of the car if I can find it.

 

Good stories. Be safe!

 

I know it's a hard thing to imagine but the bigger accidents caused less damage on my car. I have had a quarter panel dented in from a friend not looking and hit their tire on my car and they were barely moving, as well as dozens of door dings from people opening their car doors on me. Who knows why I have had better luck with wrecks than the majority of people but I have...

 

A lot of the responders are exactly right. Those old cars are death traps compared to tehse new ones.

However, third gens got EXCELLENT crash test ratings when new. It's my understanding that they changed the testing criteria since then, however. Now they do the offset head on collision (the bel air video is an example). When tehy did our cars I believe it was a straight on head on collision. The thing to realize is our cars have MASSIVE crumple zones front and rear that do a VERY good job of absorbing impact damage in accidents taht affect those areas. With our long noses and hoods and mostly open rear section... there's a lot of room for impact damage to be absorbed and keep the driver safe. The thing our cars got iffy ratings on even at the time was side impacts. That's why our doors are so heavy. They are all that protects us in a side impact. But as long as the door holds, you'll do well. The door wont absorb nearly as much of the impact though so the tendency to get injured will be a lot higher. That said, side impacts are hard on a lot of cars, but with our large doors and distance between the A and B pillar, it's a little rougher on us.

That said I've seen our cars suffer some truly gnarly accidents and have people walk away, and I really do think GM did a pretty good job with our cars to keep them safe. They are a lot different than the older cars. They're not as good as the newer cars, but there's a lot more dangerous stuff to cruise around in than thirdgens.

 

No matter what you say will ever make me believe your stories, When these cars were new I was a tow truck drive And I have seen first hand what these cars can take. The only way your car would of come out so well is if at the moment of impact the cars would have slowed down close to 5 mph. So maybe in the beginning the truck was doing 45 but with braking slowed it down to 5, And how do you know the truck was doing 45 mph? And what did you not use the brakes when you T boned that car?
Maybe we should do a poll to see who believes you stories.

 

The truck accident happened next to a pop up barrier which has a speed camera to stop possible threats from gaining access to the military base the school is on. I'm sure he braked a bit, but his reaction time was limited as he came around a blind corner and I did slam on my brakes for the t bone but was too late to do anything useful as she bolted out of a carwash stall when I was right in front of it. Yes the speeds may be slower but barely and it was still a hard hitting fast impact. Like I said before, I wouldn't come on the boards, take the tine to make up a story and post it for S&G, I have better things to do with my time. I just wanted to share my luck wih them. In my experience the cars body has held up better than anything else over the years, and just because I have had a different turn of events than the majority of people does not make me a liar. There are plenty of variables that alter how an accident will end up, and the chances of two people having the exact same senarios is too high for someone to assume that they know exactly how each accident will happen and the damages that come from it.

 

No offense here, but you didn't have better luck than anyone else that's experienced a crash with these cars. They are built the same! A 45mph rear end by a truck would do more damage to you than the truck. The truck has a frame. An old pickup, no matter how old, probably has a heavier bumper than the urethane Camaro bumper and the push bar would have destroyed your rear end if it got dented. Was this truck a low rider? Any standard height truck would put his bumper at the taillight height smashing your taillights to pieces, and wrecking the rear lift gate.

To do the damage that you mentioned to the Corolla, you would have bent up the hood at the first crumple zone at the least. The side impact bar of her door would have mangled your front impact bar and bumper, requiring that it be replaced along with the hood. If you look behind your front bumper cover, you'll see there isn't much there until you get to the radiator. To crush her side in like you described, you would have crushed your front end.

The problem you have is that the details are very embellished regarding the damage done to the other vehicles, or the speeds are. Either way, your car, my car or anybody else's car would show the same damage at an impact you described.

 

ok I am 42 years old have had Camaro/ firebirds my whole life all thirdgens.
I have totaled my share of them and have had accedents in a few too.
1st 1982 Camaro sc hit a 76 roadrunner in rear quarter he beat out the quarter with a 2x4 mine was totaled.
2nd 87 Camaro sc got rear ended by a thunderbird don't know the year. the girl turned to miss me and hit just the corner of the rear bumper her fender was pealed back to the door and her passenger front tire wasn't straight any more it tore a 1 1/2 inch hole in my bumper and busted my tail light.
same car a deer jumped out in front of me and I hit it hard enough to leave deer hair in the nose piece that was cracked. it pushed in the radiator support and that was about it hooked a chain to the support and pulled it back out using a tree and replaced the nose and hood back to normal.
83 firebird rear ended a truck with no brake lights bent the hood no damage to the truck
that's been my experience with them
rear ending seems to be ok there strong but not front end.

 

The truck had a bumper fairly even with the large, lower part my bumper so I'm sure it had some lowering, although my rear end does stick up a bit, because my taillights are brittle I know they never got touched. I really wish I could find some of the pictures to show you guys that this is no BS on the damages. I know it's almost impossible to believe as most friends who have never seen the incident first hand think I'm just lying too until someone else who was there can vouch for me.

BTW the truck was also rear ended after hitting me because he had cut into my lane. I was letting someone merge due to construction and when the truck came around the turn and saw all the cones he swerved into my lane thinking I was moving, and then hit me full on and the car originally behind me then hit him. I was fast enough to see it coming and let off the brake and prepared for impact. I realize that doesn't help you guys believe it any more or less, but it helps explain how he fast he hit me, especially since the third car couldn't react fast enough to stop. I will keep looking for photos, or accident reports to share and prove my truthfulness, I hate to drag on an argument like this, but I stand by my word and do not enjoy being called out as lying when I have no reason to and have done no such thing.

 

I was rearended in traffic years ago with the RS about 25 mph, minor damage. a suburban pushed one of those new VW bugs into me.