Right, hoods are designed to fold up in a collision so they don't go through the windshield.  Look at any modern car and you'll see the fold points are mid-point depressions in the hood's frame.  

I don't think anything is done today that doesn’t improve mileage, so I'll wager those ridges improve the airflow around the van by a miniscule, but measureable, amount.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Jim Felder
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2015 9:48 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Yet another classic VW van announcement

I don't think carmakers get to include the hood as "crumple zone." And anyway, how much are those two little pinches going to slow down a five ton coil of of steel plate? : )

Jim

On Fri, Apr 17, 2015 at 10:59 AM, KIM BRENNAN <kimbrennan@mac.com> wrote:

> Stiffer hood helps with the crumple zone capacity of the front. It has 
> a pretty short hood, so that the crumple zone area is limited.
>
> > On Apr 17, 2015, at 11:21 AM, Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > They needed a stiffer hood?
> >
> > : )
> >
> > Jim
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 17, 2015 at 9:37 AM, David Beierl 
> > <dbeierl@attglobal.net>
> wrote:
> >
> >> At 09:20 AM 4/17/2015, Jim Felder wrote:
> >>
> >>> Except for the stupid creases on the hood, it looks VERY nice. Why 
> >>> are carmakers into swoops and creases these days? Is it because 
> >>> computer
> aided
> >>> design makes it easy?
> >>>
> >>
> >> It can make the section stiffer, for what that's worth.
> >>
> >> Yrs,
> >> d
> >>
>
>