19 of 22

Big vs. small, 1970s style

Mass usually wins in automotive accidents. And while today's smallest cars come armed with plenty of airbags to help occupants survive in serious car wrecks, the economy cars of the 1970s weren't quite as stout. This vintage film from 1971 shows frontal impacts between the smallest cars and largest ones from a given automaker. As you might imagine, small cars from Ford and Chevy (the Pinto and Vega) aren't great performers. You can see the structure of these machines fold when impacted by larger sedans. However, give some love to the AMC Gremlin. Though it made Time Magazine's dubious worst cars of all time list a few years ago, it appears to perform better than the competition here. Part of the reason is that the Gremlin was built on the chassis of the more stout Hornet.