Seems like there were a few different orientations in doing these videos. The first one was "big vs little", which is obvious. "Big" always wins. The other one, possibly, was that with the fuel crisis issues, "little" was suddenly selling much more than in prior times, understandably. People wanted to spend less money to get places.
OEMs and dealers also did their own mpg tests, not unlike the prior Mobil Economy Runs, but with their own drivers and cars. BTAIM The point was to compare the highway mpg of the smaller car to that of the larger car. Which proved the larger cars wree much closer to the smaller cars in mpg than might be suspected. The unspoken orientation was "Is it worth several mpg to be in a safer vehicle? Everything has a cost." Done with the national speed limit at 55mph.
To be sure, the smaller cars might hit close to 30mph on the highway, as the larger cars would be doing good to do several mpg less than 20mph, usually. People made their own decisions about fuel cost and safety, though.
The thing that surprised me was the blatant failure of the seat belt restraints! All of which, IIRC, were certified to be good by an outside testing entity. Might not have made any difference in whether of not the occupants lived, but still concerning.
There were also some videos made comparing "old vs new". The most dramatic one was a modern Malibu against a '59 Chevrolet. Where the Malibu pretty much ended up in the front seat of the Chevrolet. Which kind of proves that while the GM X-frame might have been torsionally stiff, no real structure in the body/frame in the front of the car. FWIW
Thanks for the link to the videos,
CBODY67
