"Eisboch" wrote in message
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"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
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"FREDO" wrote in message
.. .
Subaru's are designed to crumple in order to absorb impact. Also, they
are designed to push the engine and transmission downward under the
passenger compartment in a frontal crash via a "Pitching Stopper" to
lessen the possibility of the engine coming into the passenger
compartment. They consistently receive 5 star ratings from the U.S.
government in crash testing.

Saw that happen back in the 1970s with an Eldorado. The engine vacated
its compartment completely, and crushed & burned the driver. Not pretty.


Reminds me of a recall on GM cars back in the late 60's or early 70's.
Seems a whole bunch of Chevys, Buicks, Olds, etc. were shipped with faulty
engine mounts that, when they failed, would allow the engine to drop
between the frame and hit the ground.

The fix was, believe it or not, a steel cable around one of the exhaust
manifolds with the other end bolted somewhere in the engine compartment.
The mounts still failed, but the engine oil pan would not hit the
pavement.

Eisboch


I had a Bobcat wagon (Mercury's Pinto equivalent). I'd still like to meet
the moron who designed the threaded ring that held the stick shift onto the
transmission. The ring was plastic. 4" to the right was the exhaust pipe.
One day, I downshifted from 3rd to 2nd in traffic and the shifter popped out
of the tranny. Luckily, I was 2 blocks from work, so I carefully ran 2 red
lights in 2nd gear and parked the thing. The heat from the exhaust had
melted the threads on the ring. The dealer said they'd never heard of such a
thing. My father managed to change their way of thinking because his company
did all its fleet business with them. They fixed it, but it happened two
more times. A mechanic friend and I finally modified the thing. Accessing it
involved removing the console. Unfortunately, the console screws were 6"
below the rim of the carpet. We had to remove the front seats to remove the
carpet.

Pass the ammo!