Strachan-Casale Insurance Blog

stylish and roomy -- and the best-selling car in America in 1959.

It was 17 1/2 feet long, nearly 7 feet wide and weighed more than 3,600 pounds.

Mileage? Gas was 25 cents a gallon, and even if the EPA had been invented,
no one would have cared.

By comparison, the 2009 Chevrolet Malibu is 16 feet long, a foot narrower and weighs a couple hundred pounds less. The 2.4 liter, 4 cylinder gets 24mpg and it's exhaust is probably cleaner than the air in most 1959 cities.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an insurer-supported research group,
brought the two together to demonstrate in dramatic fashion the improvements
in car safety since its 1959 founding.

The offset collision test pits two vehicles at 40 mph.

Click here: http://www.iihs.org/video.aspx/info/50thcrash

The driver in the Bel Air, its engineers concluded, would be in sorry shape.
The car lacked seat belts, let alone air bags, allowing the driver to strike the
unforgiving steering column, unpadded dashboard and roof. The passenger
compartment collapsed, crushing the crash dummy's legs. The seat was torn
from the floor. The windshield popped out and the doors opened, possibly
allowing the driver to be ejected.

On the other hand, the driver of the Malibu might have sustained an injury to
his left foot, analysis of test data showed, but otherwise emerged unscathed.

Auto Insurance premiums have dropped because if the safety built into new cars.

“The premiums for auto insurance is the same today as it was in 1990, almost 20 years ago”, says Bruce Strachan, President of Strachan-Casale, Inc. an independent insurance agency in Twinsburg, Ohio.

Call Strachan-Casale, Inc. for a free quote on your auto, home and business insurance at 330-963-3800.