Here's What Happens When You Crash A 1998 Toyota Corolla Into A New One
We all know that modern cars are much, much safer than their older counterparts. However, that doesn’t stop these sort of tests being quite shocking to watch.
Only a few months ago we were looking at the results of a crash test from Euro NCAP which involved the latest Honda Jazz crashing into a Rover 100 from 1997, and in a similar vein, ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program) has orchestrated a head-on smash between 1998 and 2015 Toyota Corollas. Each was travelling at 64km/h (40mph) at the point of impact.
The exterior footage looks bad enough, but the most shocking part is arguably the interior view, which shows just how far the dashboard is pushed into the cabin.
Speaking about the test results, ANCAP CEO James Goodwin had the following to say:
“The older car sustained catastrophic structural failure with dummy readings showing an extremely high risk of serious head, chest and leg injury to the driver. It achieved a score of just 0.40 out of 16 points – zero stars…In contrast, the current model performed very well with a five star level of protection offered, scoring 12.93 out of 16 points.”
ANCAP also reports that cars built in the year 2000 and earlier account for a disproportionate amount of fatal crashes in Australia. They make up 20 per cent of all registered vehicles in the country, yet are involved in 33 per cent of of fatal crashes. It’s a similar story in New Zealand.
For us car enthusiasts who tend to have a penchant for older metal, these kind of tests present a bit of a dilemma. Classics and modern classics are generally more interesting than modern cars, but statistically you are taking a bigger risk getting behind the wheel. Are you happy with that risk, or do tests like these make you think about getting something a little newer? We’re keen to hear your thoughts.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Quite the head-on observation.
Comment of the week right here 😂
Looks like they approached the problem head-on.
“Are you happy with that risk, or do tests like these make you think about getting something a little newer?”
I think I would be happy with that risk…
When you crash something like a classic, you’d rather die along with it than live in the horror of seeing your loved classic be scrapped.
Either you take risk or you never build up testosterone naturally. We die like real men!
If you drove the 98 one, yep.
That 98’ Corolla would still be considered extremely safe in India nowadays.
Yeah. Safety is not a category here. And I love it.
Anything is safer than a Tata Nano
I wonder what would happen when you crash a new volvo into an old one
It’s the end of the world as we know it🎶
Damn right I’d love to see that :o
The goal is to AVOID nuclear disasters.. not experiment with them. However if you must test this, do it inside North Korea so we can at least know it will fail.
Unstoppable force + immovable object
To be fair, the 1998 corolla was pretty much just rust with paint on it.
Meh I’ll take the risk any day of the week