ok well since i made it sound like a tech question, i answered it myself

http://www.zerotactic.net/thirdgen/P0002927.JPG

http://www.zerotactic.net/thirdgen/P0002928.JPG


the el camino was backing out of its parking spot when a civic drove by and the camino hit the side of the civic, the first pic is the civic damage, the second pic is the camino damage (only paint scuff on the bumper, no dents or anything!)

one import down, many... many more to go

 

It has far more to it than just steel quality. You hit that car with a thicker piece propelled by a bigger mass at a point where it is less likely to fail. Consider yourself lucky.

 

I watched an 80's chevy pickup take out the whole side of a mercedes, with worse damage than that. Somehow he managed to make a hole in the sheetmetal, still trying to figure out how that happend. But the bumper wasn't even damaged (well the bumper was already pretty shot, so there could have been but it didn't look worse than before).

I will say though, I got rear-ended in my camaro, the guy couldn't have been going more than 10, the rear bumper was fine, but it knocked the hatch out of alignment, back seat didn't latch correctly anymore, large crease in rear 1/4, door didn't shut without alot of effort, and the fender poped out about 3/4in, basically nasty frame damage from a 10mph collision

 

Yes, that's really not a fair comparison. If you want a better idea, wander through some junk yards to study different cars that have been in serious front enders. Then you'll decidc what kind of car to buy next.

 

I dunno, some of the cars today (even our 3rd gens) have pretty thin door skins and such. Some of those olds school cars have some THICK sheetmetal on them....you'd think they were almost 1/4" thick.

 

Almost anything made 88+ is made to self destruct on impact(crumple zone). New cadys are horrible in accidents even at low speeds. I saw a toyota tundra side swipe an escalade @ 30 MPH both were totaled but the side of the caddy that wasent hit including the front wrap had severe damage from the crumple zone effect. I'd feel real sorry for a car that wanted to tangle with my 56 buick.

 

I've seen the aftermath of a seriously bad accident. A 60's something dodge car ripped a late 80's early 90's toyota sedan in half. The dodge looked to have only damage on the front, heavy damage though.

 

I took the 400 engine in my 85Z28 from my '71 Chevy p-up cuz my son rearended someone slightly with it. Anyway, when i got the truck the entire drivers door and part of the bed were smashed in from a side hit. I was originally gonna restore the truck before the rearend collision happened. I tried to bang the door out with a heavy sledge...wouldnt even budge it!! that was some hard azz steel. The teenager that owned the truck before me got hit in the side with it from a woman who ran a red light. He only survived with minor injuries because of the hardened steel door.

 

Some years ago I was driving my '79 Chevy Malibu Coupe, and wasn't paying enough attention on the road ahead of me.
Suddenly I noticed a car standing still before me, I was driving about 40mls, and the road was wet, I hit the brakes, but, because of the wet road the car slipped.
So I hit this small japanese car from behind, with a very loud thundering noise!!
I was very afraid for the damage to my car, but to my surprise I couldn't see any damage at all, besides a very small scratch on my front bumper.
The Suzuki was a total loss.......!!!!!!!
Luckely the driver was OK (altough very, VERY mad...!!!).

 

I don't know, I got slammed from the rear in my '82 TA. Only a paint scuff on the bumper, but the Dodge Colt that hit me had blown out there rear side glass, one rear tire, and no kiddin, blew out one of there rear springs.
The only thing that pissed me off was that my soda flew over and spilled on my passenger side floor board. Ba**ards!!!

Ron

 

I make my living from selling OEM (GM, Ford & Daimler/Chrysler)collision parts. What the car manufacturers strive for is occupant survivabilty at the expense of components. The slightest hit can cause some expense damage especially on the late model vehicles. The average repair bill for an accident today is $3000. I recently sold a body shop $5500 worth of parts to fix a 2002 Camaro SS that hit a deer and that was after a substantial discount off the parts list price.