1973 New Yorker is rear-ended by Kia Forte

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As someone here said in that recent thread comparing German, American, & Japanese cars, there is no substitute for mass. Those ratings only compare cars in a similar class.
Meh, the 2 door NYer was only 4500# ;)

The 4dr Brougham would have come in closer to 4700. It's an achievement to put in a 440 and have it feel gutless LOL.
 
Beer can vs AMERICAN STEEL. The driver of the Chrysler probably thought someone delivering lunch on an electric bike ran into him ! LOL My goodness !!! I used to put front clips on cars like that when I was a kid. The bumper weighed more than the whole Kia !! Fender wells were made out of steel. Now I cry when I break one of those stupid plastic fasteners that hold the entire splash undercarriage of a car together. I couldn't do that work anymore, too old :(
 
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Some years back, I saw a two-door coupe (1966?) Ford Thunderbird parked next to an Infiniti Q45, and the "coupe" made the Japanese flagship look small in comparison.
 
My wife was rear-ended in our JL (on 38s at the time) by a Subaru.

The spare got the dust wiped off. Everything else was fine. I pored over it in case I needed to file a claim but could find ZERO damage.
Collision2.webp


The Subaru's hood got a makeover and his radiator popped so he was dead in the water.
Collision1.webp

The wife drove home and that was the end of it for us (shrug)
 
I'll never forget driving a Toyota Corolla into the bumper of a large American pickup truck. Our vehicle of course had a hood that looked like an accordion; the owner of the pickup just stepped outside the vehicle, saw that nothing was damaged, exchanged contact info, and then drove off. :)
 
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Beer can vs AMERICAN STEEL. The driver of the Chrysler probably thought someone delivering lunch on an electric bike ran into him ! LOL My goodness !!! I used to put front clips on cars like that when I was a kid. The bumper weighed more than the whole Kia !! Fender wells were made out of steel. Now I cry when I break one of those stupid plastic fasteners that hold the entire splash undercarriage of a car together. I couldn't do that work anymore, too old :(
Yeah, that is not how this is going to end up.
The Chrysler will have damage underneath, as there was nothing to absorb energy. KIA absorbed most of the energy, but still, Chrysler will have damage, potentially in critical spots. I have seen a KIA Soul against one of these 70's vehicles, in a frontal collision, and the end result was not pretty for the old vehicle. KIA looked smashed like this one, but the passenger compartment was intact. The old vehicle, on the other hand, had a roof completely messed up, as well as the driver's floor.
The driver of Chrysler was lucky he was rear-ended:
 
Wow exact same car I drove when I first started driving right down to the colour .
the 440 put out all of 215 h.p in 1973.
That car would cruise at 80 all day long on the 401 and not even break a sweat
 
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Yeah, that is not how this is going to end up.
The Chrysler will have damage underneath, as there was nothing to absorb energy. KIA absorbed most of the energy, but still, Chrysler will have damage, potentially in critical spots. I have seen a KIA Soul against one of these 70's vehicles, in a frontal collision, and the end result was not pretty for the old vehicle. KIA looked smashed like this one, but the passenger compartment was intact. The old vehicle, on the other hand, had a roof completely messed up, as well as the driver's floor.
The driver of Chrysler was lucky he was rear-ended:

My little fwd '81 Olds Omega had shock absorbing bumper mounts on the back at least. It was a pretty solid chuck of chromed aluminum. I saw my MIL back into it pretty fast with the corner of a Camry, and the whole bumper moved in 3-4 inches and then moved back out like nothing happened. The corner of the Camry bumper cover folded in and cracked up pretty good and bent the bumper underneath a bit.
So the New Yorker bumper may have had something similar?
 
My little fwd '81 Olds Omega had shock absorbing bumper mounts on the back at least. It was a pretty solid chuck of chromed aluminum. I saw my MIL back into it pretty fast with the corner of a Camry, and the whole bumper moved in 3-4 inches and then moved back out like nothing happened. The corner of the Camry bumper cover folded in and cracked up pretty good and bent the bumper underneath a bit.
So the New Yorker bumper may have had something similar?
Could be. That was one of the ways to absorb small impacts.
However, damage on KIA is such that tells me that was not the case. Chrysler had to absorb some energy. Where that energy was absorbed is the question.
 
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