After you see this insurance industry video, you may be thankful that they don't. In this video, a 1959 Chevy Bel Air goes head to head in a crash test with a 2009 Chevy Malibu. Not going to give away the conclusion, but the results of the crash test may surprise you. This link will be valid until December 23, 2010 https://www.yousendit.com/download/RlRvdFdkOW5Ha1B2Wmc9PQ
That likely has something to do with it. Most company firewalls work via blacklisting (maintains a list of forbidden domain names), whitelisting (clients can only visit sites on the whitelist or internally hosted websites on the company's intranets), or, some of the more advanced sites can block sites by content (which might be the case here). It probably wasn't directly intentional, but it may have detected you were trying to download a video (via the file extension) and squashed the attempt. You can probably take a look at it after work hours. I can tell you it will be worth the wait.
That thing has been floating around for a couple of years, IIRC. Yes; there was a lot more concentration on style than substance for the '59 Chevy. Back then, Indy cars still had treaded tires - because we thought they needed them for traction. Cars had fins ostensibly for stability (at least, Chrysler tried to sell it that way). We've learned a lot since 1959.
The Youtube version is a lot better. Thanks! Youtube version has sound, and offers 1st-person POV's from both the 1959's and the 2009's driver's seats. It's a pretty dramatic video. A few of my favorite old cars are the 1st generation Mustangs and the 1977 - 1979 Thunderbirds. Don't get me wrong though. Those vehicles are the LAST ones I'd want to be in a head-on collision in. In all fairness to the 1959 car, the survival chances of someone in that car MIGHT have been enhanced significantly had that car been fitted with a seatbelt worn by the driver. Although the U.S. passed legislation requiring new cars to be fitted with seatbelts in 1959 (same year as the Bel Air tested in the video), the mandate didn't take effect until the 1963 model cars (front lap belt only), enhanced with a requirement for front shoulder and rear lap belts in 1968 vehicles. There is a story somewhere on the internet regarding an E32 driver who lost control of his vehicle at 60 miles an hour. The impacts bounced both ends of the car off a concrete barrier, with the car resembling an accordion at both ends. Reportedly, all four occupants emerged from the vehicle unharmed, and were even able to let themselves out of the destroyed vehicle via the exiting through the still functional side doors.
Wow. It feels so weird having someone else explain a technical thing to me that I already understand. lol At my company, when something is blocked by the firewall, it won't hesitate to tell you that you're an idiot for accessing the site. In this case, it was just a simple "page cannot be displayed", which I've never seen as a blocked site at work, which is what had me perplexed. Oh well, just got home and saw the video. Safety is a necessary evil (added weight, more stuff to replace when broken, etc.), but I'd much rather have my E46 in an impact than my old E30, that's for sure. Not saying the E30 wasn't a safe car, just not quite as likely to survive a big impact in it. I'm thankful for all of the safety advances they have made over the years. I've watched enough crash test videos of the Chery Amulet on YouTube to be extremely thankful for not driving a Chinese built car!
Yet another reason to be thankful... You're welcome. With 19 years in PC Desktop experience, it's one of the few topics I do well in. The Chery Amulet has not yet been approved or certified for US sale. Based on what you're describing, that doesn't sound likely without a significant redesign of the vehicle for North America. Despite our previous discussions on vehicle weight, this is one 2,513 pound car (thank you Wikipedia) I'd prefer not to be behind the wheel of. In this case, I don't mind another 800 pounds of weight if I can be alive to sign the insurance claim. How bad is the Amulet, aka the A15? It has several safety features including antilock brakes and electronic brake force distribution for driving in bad weather.[4] However, the Russian car magazine AutoReview reported that an A15 it had crashed in accordance with the EuroNCAP test standard performed even worse than the 1-starred Brilliance BS6 Sedan, and the dummy used had to be dismantled into pieces in order to be removed.[5][6] Consequently, AutoReview is calling for the car to be withdrawn from the market.
