It was a POS. Not a highly desirable car them 4 doors.. Here is a link with some alternate sets of camera angles including inside the car views..
There were a couple of intelligent sounding, seemingly knowledgeable posts in the comments section, and I'm gonna quote them, because the odds are they will get buried within a day or 2.. I did fix all the typos for them..
Quote..: the 58-64 gm`s had an x-frame which means no frame on the sides,just sheet metal,so any car would have went through that sheet metal fender with the dash being next, they were very strong on front and rear collisions but not on they`re sides, thats why gm did away with the x-frame. all that malibu had to go through was sheet metal to do that, if it had been a gm previous to 59 or 65 and above this wouldn't of happened cause there would be a perimeter frame on the sides, not just sheet metal."
Another quote.. "Sadly though..the engine, doesn't matter what size are bolted to structural parts such as frame...When structural parts collapse or crush the engine is moved into the firewall..causing more damage...Newer cars engines are designed to crush or drop to the ground...Engines have little to do with the structural integrity of a car..and if this thing had a V8 there would have been more damage because it would move/crush into the passengers seat.."
Obviously, these guys knew the weakness of the 59 Chevy chassis and it made for a dramatic example. If it was hit head on instead of the offset collision, the chevy may have fared better.. There is one more thing to mention, and that is the fact it was a 50 year old car. I know 48 years has done nothing but damage to my frame, I'm willing to bet the chevy wasn't much better! :tongue: