The fact is Volvo has always designed for crash survival FOR THE OCCUPANTS and not necessarily overall strength of the vehicle.

I've seen them hit and knocked around all different ways and the surprising thing, for MOST of the RWD cars I've seen, is that the doors open and close. This tells me the passenger compartment doesn't deform under crash forces. Of course you can hit anything hard enough to break it, but I'd rather put my family into Volvos than just about anything else out there. It's a gamble no matter what, but these cars tilt the odds a bit in your favor.

Over the last year, I've seen 3 accidents involving Chevy pickups. I don't know the details of every one of them, but the deformation to the passenger compartments are very scary. One was a near perfect offset barrier crash where a Sonoma or similar small truck hit the guardrail at a left-turn-lane gap in a jersey barrier divided 4-lane highway. The roof and floor were bent up and down to a peak, the steering wheel had to be touching the seatback. Did not look survivable. I don't think my Volvos would kill me like that.

The picture attached I shot a couple summers ago- the car's a 1984, it was 20+ years old then, not in great shape, a rusty New England car. It still did its job and the two front seat occupants just walked away. The windshield broke because the hood folded back into it, not because of deformation at the A pillars.


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::: Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 92 244 ::: 90 745GL ::: 90 745T ::: 84 242DL ::: 90 745T Parts ::: Used to have : 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 91 244, 88 244GL, 88 744GLE, 82 245T, 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 88 245DL, 89 244DL!