In a message dated 4/7/02 4:47:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time, jbrush@AROS.NET
writes:

>
> Hit the same wall at 40 mph, and see what happens. 5 mile an hour bumpers
> are a stupid way to judge the safety of a vehicle. Your Audi will self
> destruct in a head on impact at highway speed. That is part of the design,
> as you know, to absorb the impact and spread it over the entire vehicle,
> in order to protect you. I don't want to hit anything head on in any
> automobile, but the damage to the car will exceed that of the van.
>
> The next time you are cruising down the highway at 5 miles per hour and
> and you hit a concrete barrier, you will be able to walk away and write a
> thank you note to Audi. :-)
>
> John
>

for those of you who were on this list in april of '99 may remember my
accident..  i was doing 65-70 mph on a divided highway in a rural area with
biscecting crossroads with no stoplights, just signs.   a 19 year old kid and
his friend in his mom's corsica  thought he could make it across all 4 lanes
without stopping.
he literally drove into the left front of my '84 Audi 5000 turbo at full
force (he was doing about 55) and spun me around 3 times, and i landed approx
5-600 feet down road , backwards, drivers side up against the guardrail.  car
still running, tho front end crushed, drivers door compacted, roof bent up,
floor bent down, LF wheel almost to A pillar.   i managed to get my left foot
unstuck (was pinned between the brake pedal and the floor) and climbed out
the drivers window.  i walked away from this accident.  the kids friend was
killed.
i would have been dead too, if i was in a vanagon..   or seriously hurt.   i
required no med attention.  i went out and bought another audi after that,
they are very safe cars.  if anyone would like to see the pics of the audi,
and the damage it sustained, while protecting me,  p-mail me and ill be glad
to send pics.

chris
'86 Audi 5000 turbo
'84 vanagon wolfsburg sunroof
'78 westfalia
'90 cabriolet