Volkswagen - Volkswagen Safety - Volkswagen Safety Research (1984) 

Awesome video and channel.

I drove a 1983 VW Vanagon Westfalia with the 1.8 Water cooled engine and a 4 speed... I can assure you, on modern roads, that vehicle was anything but safe. and I loved every minute of it

Once had a lady do a u turn in front of me while driving my orange 1984 T3 camper. I was doing about 50kmph. I braked, turned the van into her back door so the driver’s corner took the full force, closed my eyes, swore, and held on as her Merc wrapped around the front and we pushed her across the road onto the other side. My wife and I in the front, had seat belts and were fine. The two in the back didn’t and flew forward into our seats, but luckily apart from bad bruising were okay. Anything not tied down flew into the front, my wife was hit in the head by a torch, but the fittings in the van were fine. We lost both headlights and some body damage along the front. The Merc however was written off as it was twisted, but the lady got out with a cut finger from her shattered windows. A week later, the van was back on the road, all nice and shiny and we carried on our trip through Germany. The only change, the two in the back always wore there seat belts and I would go into a cold sweat when ever I had to pass a silver Merc parked on the side of a road. Lessons we learnt as shown in this video. Wear seatbelts, don’t leave stuff lying around and the VW could T-bone a Merc and still come away smiling. 😄

It is like a sci-fi documentary. The music, the tone of the speaker, the technology, everything speaks sci-fi.

If ads were like this today, I wouldn't use any sort of adblocker...

Love how profesional and purly informative these old videos were.

My God the music in this is just amazingggggg

I can confirm the safety of a VW Transporter is good (for the standards of that time). I crashed one with about 50 Km/h into a guardhouse. The front axle buckled up inside the floor in the cabin, but I kicked the door open and walked away unharmed. :)

Just imagine, you were intended to CRUSH the steering wheel with your body. Airbags really are amazing.

The soothing voice of the British narrator is very comforting as he assuages you that the vanagon is crash worthy. I'm sure a late model South African bus with ABS and airbags is a big step up. Nevertheless, I LOVE THE VANAGON!! Definitely an all time favorite. Drive cautiously and enjoy it!!!!!!!!!

I understand why they chose the American car to rear-end... The body on chassis disign where the sturdy bumpers are attached to the chassis... Allows the higher ride VW to overrun the bumper and use the relatively soft trunk of the yank as a crumple-zone which softens the impact to the VW

The analog Synth Sound effects make the footage so insanely dramatic, its hilarious!

I love the music.

Remarkable how that van keeps it's original form, even after rolling down a steep hill. But I'm sure that the driver in it would still be dead from hitting the cabin several times with his head.

lovely de-interlacing, well done and smooth!

Very accurate, ive experienced it myself last year in june, when i was to overtaking somone in the middle lane from the autobahn, ive crashed in a T5 Van that was standing in the left lane from the autobahn, 1/3 on the left side 50kmh i did a perfect field crash test with my T3 Doka and survived with little to no harm physicaly, but 100% damage mentaly to my beloved bulli

I once had an accident in my mk 2 golf - diahatsu 4 track pulled out and wrote it off . The deformable Chassis worked beautifully , front corner was gone but the rest was excellent . That's why I still drive a golf .

Love the simple design of 80's Volkswagen! She has a better crumple zone than many cheap vans and small trucks sold in Asian countries in 2022. The scene of slamming Dummy's body against the steering wheel looks really painful. :(

9:10 So that’s how they came up with the AMC Gremlin’s design

Unexpectedly good designs!

Крепкий. Много труда и времени вложено в разработку и доводку.

Amazing upload quality. Thank you!

The sounds and visual effects are the most 80's thing ever. Pretty cool doc though!

Dobrze mi się prowadziło T3 i starego LTka. Naprawdę przemyślane samochody.

LT28 might have crumple zones and good seatbelts for the driver. And one passenger. The man in the midle will just have to hold his mouth closed so his guts do not fly out because of a lap belt.

Those crash test dummies are a lot bigger now to model the ‘average’ person today. 😎

Back in the 70's I saw several VW minibuses catch fire and burn on side of the roads. Those magnesium rear engine blocks were fire hazards!

GREAT INFORMATIVE VIDEO PRESENTATION!. Thanks for posting!

You'll probably wind up dead from G forces. . . But at least you won't be crushed by the car itself. Classic rock solid cars.

The music in this video is sick.... I mean it literally is making me nauseous, got to love there early 80s UK informational videos

All these crash tests are done from the front for front shocks, something which unfortunately happens very rarely but rather on the front left or right side, and there the protection must be light! They never show that.

Psychomusic. :D

why there are no more documentals like this today?

From the time when Volkswagen served and had public recognition and respect. Now...

Que lindo ver los autos de esa época

Love the music! Very Boards Of Canada. :-)

This Synth Music is mesmerizing…

Is it only me or these old videos really are more professional than current ones? They just feel more...well made? No BS? Something like that

Old Vw is perfect 😘😘

"The deformation of the interior did not endanger the passengers" The instant deceleration from 50 to 0 however... forget it, just buy Volkswagen already!

Very nice and a Thumbs Up.

Love the interlaced PAL 25i !

The rollover test was impressive on the kamper especially with what looked like a pop top roof

I love this car !

Limousine hahahaha! I wrecked one of those vans in Germany when I hit black ice and left the road. It impacted the tree at the A pillar and I did not consider it to be a light injury, as the lower portion of the dash and my left kneecap occupied the same place at the same time.

very good video quality

*excellent protection* also steering wheel: *ooh the inside of this test dummy chest looks like a good spot to rest!*

@:24 I love that green Dasher!🏁

wow 60fps video, i love this channel

Poor K70. My parents drove one when I was a child. What a wonderful car it was!

10:00 -- The passenger seat breaks loose from its mountings on the left side and is only held in place by the right side. I can only imagine what would've happened at a much higher speed, or if they'd hit something that's not as soft as a Buick's trunk. If the seat fully broke off would the dummy have been sliced in half by the seatbelt?

Very good video.

Da época em que a Volkswagen prestava e tinha reconhecimento e respeito do público. Agora...

Excellent pronounciation of Volkswagen.🙂👌👊👍👏

1:43 - NO WAY could that driver stop normally in that short distance. In this case it's okay though: by the time the girl crosses in front of him it's gone from early afternoon to late afternoon - they must have both been going super slow!

I love the sound effects on the video😂 80's...

Reading the comments and seeing all the people sharing their T3 crash stories I feel like I have to tell mine too; well not 100% mine as I was only a couple years old and in the passenger seat but my mom was driving her VW T3 bus up the road and was blinded by the sun, she drove into another more modern car of which I don't remember the model and made it roll over its side into a ditch, the other car was completely twisted and totaled but lucky the airbags inflated and all the people involved where fine, where as to the VW T3 it was LITTERALY COMPLETELY and I say it again COMPLETLY unharmed, as I recall not even the front bumper had even a scratch on it and we drive our beloved bulli to this day

Damn. The Transporter was on the leading edge of safety. I wonder how it would fare on today's tests and standards.

Good to see VW built some safety into their Kombis in 1984, well after they were pretty much driven out of the market by Japanese vans e.g., Toyota.

Very good

Love the frightening, weird music going along with crashes...

6:56 is a K70!!

Vw t3 the best 👌🏼🇩🇿

5 years ago i had an accident at 70km/h. i crashed into a car in front of me and took about 4 cars in the rear. all of the others disappeared halfpart into dust, my 1988 vw is still running. i just had to replace the whole front and the rear bumper. yes i know that if the wohle accident would have happened with vw transporters only, we all would be dead, because the transporter is litterally constructed like a brick.

I always wondered if they would be safe in a crash. But you better not be hit by Transporter T3 in another car.

All due respect considering it was the 1980's and at least they did something. All those cars seem like death traps. And we all know how legit VW lab test are conducted by now.

well the last LT's a pillar snapped and the roof was destroyed bad one to end with but otherwisw great video

how is the T3 doing in a side pole crash on the drivers side ? how in a small overlap crash on the front left side ?

I wonder why those examples of crashed cars at the start of this video are mostly Audi?

Aún hoy, el Volkswagen Up! , El más chico, tiene 5 estrellas en seguridad.

Quite funny watching this nowadays considering all the further improvements. Especially with them arguing that the lack of the crumple zone or distance at the front is not a problem 👀

Mighty impressive considering the year. However, a VW Golf of the same era would not fare as well.

The amount of damage vw has done to other cars 😂 jesus like a tank

Thanks Volkswagen

Most of the cars on a highway travel 100 or 120 Km/h. 50 or 75 km/h is not enough to make a crash test.

An ‘American limousine’ at 8:47. A Buick Regal.

Piękne - trochę nauki i historii. Pozdrawiamy WBcars Gdańsk -:) ps. zapinajcie Pasy. JEDNAK

The Volkswagen is a tank.

ich kann mich an die adac tests damals noch gut erinnern

I love this Modell idrove the Caravelle and the Syncro TD

Te music does the trick!

i co złomnik gadasz za głupoty że t3 niebezpieczne

This music goes hard!

Das WAR einmal!

They should have done the test a few years later on to see how all those rusty floors performed ☺️

i need one of these badly

these clips are awesome. no doubt. but i have to admit that i find the background music unspeakably annoying 🤣 (but that was the synthy 80s)

Hey, where are those vans available? These still made?

I'm looking at the cab deformation in the crash test at 50 kph. That's a total fail in modern NHTSA tests.

I've seen a few of these german road safety films from the 70s and 80s and I've discovered - 1 . The Germans are really weird people. 2 . They love smashing thing up . 3 . But they make excellent motor vehicles - that's why I drive a golf . A previous golf I had got written of by an errant land cruiser and the crumple zones were amazingly good .

Safe or not, having a T3 regular cab transporter would be perfect.

They learned a lot from the fragility of the Type 1 Splits and Bays…

Looks like the steering kind of folds up and impales the Crash dummy in the chest on every hit

Oh stop! Stop crashing those lovely buses!

Unless I missed it, who did the voiceover?

I love that brand

Nice! Like a tank, I feel that way in my classic bug.

Time when road cars was best Quality ever.

i have been t boned in a old audi and in old sciroccos living proof vws safety was effective even without airbags

All this engineering and they *still* didn't think to put airbags in the damn things until they were forced to in the mid 90s. I cringed especially hard when I saw how deformed the "safe" collapsible steering wheel was after they slammed the dummy into it. What the hell were they *thinking* in the 80s?