new vs old safety technology

[redressonance]

My girlfriend is deeply concerned that my daily driver is a 39 year old car with 39 year old safety technology. This might be a broad question but how much safer are new cars vs old cars?





Some topics that I imagine might come up are:

ABS
Airbags
Body-on-Frame vs. unibody (Monocoque)
crumple zone
side beams
Collapsible steering columns

If you had to guess a percentage of likelihood that you would survive a serious crash in new car vs an old one what would your guess be?



-Alonso