On Tue, 5 Sep 95 14:37:58 CDT mbushore@icaen.uiowa.edu 
wrote:

This may or may not be helpful in your project:
>  
> 
> What I am wondering/needing is some feelings on how 
individual people
> make decisions to compensate for the obvious design 
comprimises that
> some types of vehicles have.  For instance, has anyone 
ever noticed
> that a VW bus has a short nose?  How do you compensate for 
this when you
> drive?  Or do you?

I'm sure you didn't mean to imply a vans' short nose is a 
design compromise, but rather a given for the body style. 

This brought to mind a conversation I had with a VW salesman 
toward the end of the Vanagon run. He told me the VW Vanagon 
was among the ten best cars/small trucks in terms of 
surviving a head on crash. He even gave me a reprint that 
gave the gory details. As I thought about this I concluded, 
based on my experiences, the van driver automatically 
increases his/her awareness and is more likely to avoid 
dangerous driving situations due to , in part, his/her 
proximity to other traffic. In other words the "short nose" 
contributes to enhanceing the safety record of the van.

 
> For anyone interested, Volkswagens get mentioned more 
times than
> any other car make when we discuss product liability in 
class....

Even more than the sport utility/ four wheel drive types? 
Fascinating. 

Bill Duff
69 single cab
82 Vanagon