Thanks for the info, Jim.  It sounds like you came out of your accident in at
least fairly good condition.  There are a lot of people that have not.  There's
so many things that can go wrong, it's downright scary.

I'm not at all thrilled about losing the economy we had with the Jetta, since we
do a fair bit of driving.  My truck spends most of its life in the garage (or up
against a tree somewhere) and our primary vehicle gets 99.9% of our miles.
Going from the 42+ mpg diesel-powered Jetta to something that only gets in the
low 20's is not my idea of a smart move.   But the wife has the majority of the
say in what we replace the Jetta with so all I can do is try and hit her up with
logic.  It's funny, but I haven't had that much luck with that method in the
past!

I'd say the Jetta did an excellent job of protecting my wife.  I may post a
couple of pictures on a.b.test, since I know people freak out when they're
posted here.  When the EMT's called me and said that my wife had been in an
accident, I was concerned but not overly worried, as they said her condition was
good, that she was talking, etc.  However, when I saw the car (from a distance -
it ended up facing the road, about 40' into a farm field) I became really
worried.  In fact, I only recognized the car because of our license plate.  I
was not aware at the time that they'd cut the roof off, so it looked to me as if
it had rolled.  Honestly, I didn't stick around very to find out, as I had a
helicopter to chase after.  It was close to an hour drive to the hospital for me
and believe me, all the things on the TBI website were going thru my mind during
that time.  I had no idea what I'd find when I finally saw her.  The relief at
finding that she really did have just minor injuries is indescribable.

But looking at the car up close a few days later, I was again in wonder how she
had escaped any broken bones or serious injury.  In fact, one of her more
emotional friends actually puked when her husband drove her over to look at the
car.  I'll be the first to admit that Filipina's can be drama queens but that
was going just a bit overboard.  This gal is my wife's best friend but to get
physically sick over something like that, especially when she'd already spent
time talking with my wife and knew she was ok, was a little weird.

You're also right on regarding the disparity of size in the vehicles.  Which is
why I say the Jetta did a fantastic job of keeping my wife as safe as it did.
The amount of destruction the Jetta endured is quite amazing.  We visited the
crash site just yesterday and the 'debris field' is surprisingly large.  I've
done a bit of work on the Jetta over the years and there were parts I had
absolutely no idea where they had been!

I'm going to be looking into the change in the Jetta's safety rating change to
see if I can find out the reason for the reduction.  I liked the Jetta a lot
would have no trouble getting another one.  Anyway, thanks again for the info.
Cheers,
jc

What a story and what pics, wow!
I feel for you and your wife, my family was rear ended in 1998 at 70mph and
shoved into the back of a minivan. We had a 1991 Camry wagon and it did a
super job protecting us. The car folded in the middle like a tent. Front and
rear completely crushed in, but the passenger compartment was almost
completely untouched.
Have you thought about a Passat TDI? We have a 2005 and get consistently in
the mid 40's combined driving. I have hypermiled it once and got 50.6 mpg.
It is larger and drives like a dream. There are a few really good ones in
the South East Virginia area at reasonable prices.

Cecil