The video makes it really hard to tell exactly what’s going on (particularly annoying is the bit at 1:32 where they show an overhead view, which would let us see what’s happening to each car without bits of the other one being in the way—and then cut away from it to yet another nigh-incomprehensible side view at the instant of contact.
But I think there are two things going on here: the newer car has a slightly more squashable front portion, and a much less squashable passenger compartment.
In a head-on collision between the cars, the former doesn’t do much to make the newer car look better (though it does make the collision less bad for the occupants of both vehicles) because what’s happening is that energy that would otherwise be used for crushing both drivers is used for crushing the newer car’s front part instead.
So part-way through 0:29 you can (I think) see that the newer car’s front has scrunched up more. But there’s still enough kinetic energy, or momentum, or whatever the relevant quantity actually is here, to keep scrunching. As we go through 0:30, the front of the older car also gets crushed. But so does the passenger compartment of the older car, whereas the passenger compartment of the newer car remains largely intact.
So the newer car
has a front portion that can absorb more energy by crumpling, which helps reduce the (other) damage to both cars
has a stronger and more rigid passenger compartment, so that once the crash has proceeded far enough that the next thing that has to go is either the front of the older car or the passenger compartment of the newer car, it’s the front of the older car that goes.
The video makes it really hard to tell exactly what’s going on (particularly annoying is the bit at 1:32 where they show an overhead view, which would let us see what’s happening to each car without bits of the other one being in the way—and then cut away from it to yet another nigh-incomprehensible side view at the instant of contact.
But I think there are two things going on here: the newer car has a slightly more squashable front portion, and a much less squashable passenger compartment.
In a head-on collision between the cars, the former doesn’t do much to make the newer car look better (though it does make the collision less bad for the occupants of both vehicles) because what’s happening is that energy that would otherwise be used for crushing both drivers is used for crushing the newer car’s front part instead.
So part-way through 0:29 you can (I think) see that the newer car’s front has scrunched up more. But there’s still enough kinetic energy, or momentum, or whatever the relevant quantity actually is here, to keep scrunching. As we go through 0:30, the front of the older car also gets crushed. But so does the passenger compartment of the older car, whereas the passenger compartment of the newer car remains largely intact.
So the newer car
has a front portion that can absorb more energy by crumpling, which helps reduce the (other) damage to both cars
has a stronger and more rigid passenger compartment, so that once the crash has proceeded far enough that the next thing that has to go is either the front of the older car or the passenger compartment of the newer car, it’s the front of the older car that goes.
Thanks, appreciate the diagnosis!