09-11-2015, 06:13 PM
(09-11-2015, 06:00 PM)OdinYggd Wrote:Im aware about the glass, I didn't need a lesson.(09-11-2015, 05:19 PM)Marxon Wrote: Newer cars don't use plate glass.
That isn't plate glass in that car Marxon. It was the same design of automotive safety glass still in use today. And even on a modern car, when struck hard enough the glass will shatter like so, but retain as much of the pieces as possible to prevent injury to the passengers from flying broken glass.
The only standard safety features that Nova was lacking compared to a modern car are antilock brakes and airbags. It used the same crumple-zone technique to absorb impact energy, the same tempered coated automotive glass, a direct ancestor of today's seatbelt arrangements, and even had a functional anti-theft device.
And the roads around here are pretty messed up too. Cold wintertime weather has left them full of holes, but you also regularly see farm equipment and construction trucks dropping chunks of dirt and rocks on the road. The car I bought to replace the Nova when it finally died went through 3 windshields in its first 2 years. The first one got chipped by rocks, then cracked out and had to be replaced. The second one got hit by a piece of steel falling off of a truck and cracked, needing replacement, and the third one was at least my own screwup- I was trying to replace a wiper pushrod and banged against it with the wrench I was using, cracking it and needing to replace it for the third time.
Hopefully the one that's in it now stays crack-free for the rest of my time driving it.