Audi snubbed again

[healey@lerc.nasa.gov (jim healey)]

Hi All
Watch TV last night? -  well I saw the coming attractions for
a crash safety study so I had to watch

Dateline preceded the show by saying they had nothing to
do with the tests (and I was so hoping to see the Ka-blooie)

Some Blah Blah Insurance Institute decided to run 38mph
offset head-on crashes to see how many broken legs etc.
they could get - they were only interested in the lower extremities.

It seems a bunch of cars that did well in the full frontal will turn
you into a pretzel in an offset collision.  So, what did they test?
14 cars in total. lets see there was a Taurus, a lumina, a camry
a maxima, a contour, a passat(VR6) and oh yes an ovlov 850.

Nope, no Audis, BMWs or Mercedes  -  I guess they didn't want to
make the competition look too bad. 

I remember someone (John Greenstreet?) posting results of similiar
tests in Germany describing the pedal and dash travel - and the A8
showing the lowest score ever (low being good).  

For the curious, if you're driving the passat and you get into an
offset crash - don't plan on walking again.

just some commentary

jim h