Bring back real old fashioned bumpers?

That was the first Toy I got over 200K, and still kept running. I wanted the Twin Cam so traded it; I saw the car about 3 years later, but the rust was taking it's toll.

Yes, thanks, I know. I was being facetious to the clueless one.

OK, I have to ask...why do you pick on him?

Titanium? :)

Have it stick out a foot. Do people want functionality, or style that wastes their money?

Unfortunately, many people prefer style over function. The other trick to designing a bumper, as Hachiroku mentioned, is that the bumper is an integral part of the vehicle's crumple zone.

Old fashioned bumper guards - upright mini-bumpers installed on the main bumper helped reduce bumper override.

They already did that back in the late 70's/early 80's. Take a look at a Delorean, or even an 80 Corolla SR5...

The 4Runner has a frame for the bumper to attach to. A strong steel bumper on a modern unibody vehicle will be of very limited value, and will simply transfer more of the impact to the body, causing even more damage.

On Apr 19, 7:19 pm, Sarah Houston pondered:

The first cars hardly had bumpers at all. Then they started using bumpers that looked like a highway guard rail, usually with 2 slats.. But the *REAL=AE" bumpers came about in the glorious 50's. Back when men were men, sheep were scared, and Elvis and Pat Boone ruled the airwaves. :/ In the 50's you had manly bumpers that would probably outweigh the average toyota engine block these days.

For a few examples... A 59 Cad.. Pretty stout, but not sure if it's the best.

This Buick had some pretty hefty protrusions.. Ouch.. One of my fav's.. The 57 Chevy, with it's Madonna look rubber breast implants... :) But this one may be the epitome of 50's heavy metal. They don't make cars anymore like this Old's.. BTW, if I remember right, Hank Williams Jr. owned this car at one time.. But sold it.. These pix are from an auction.. A streamlined, but still manly front bumper. No picnic table? No Problemo! We'll have a picnic on the built on back patio/bumper. Note the rocket exhaust flows through the bumpers.. A 50's masterpiece if I ever did see one.

Next week we will discover the lost art of hood ornaments. When I was a fresh sprout, my dad drove one of these..

1954 Pontiac Catalina Star Chief. Last year for the straight 8... still remember riding in it. The best part was the lityellow indian hood ornament. It also had a fairly manlyset of bumpers on that car, but more of the freight train"push bar" type of scheme.The lit up indian was the real attraction though.. For the biker in the family... Combo bumper/hood ornament.

But I think my favorite hood ornament is this one..

I took it over to a good bodyshop nearby on Tuesday, which I'd used for fixing my tailgate recently and they fixed it for 1/2 hour of time, $22. I consider myself lucky.

The guy said he managed to push it back out, that a mounting tab was cracked and that he used some adhesive to repair it. He had dirt on his back, like he'd been crawling under the car.

That's the problem.

I'm not suggesting that though. I'm suggesting a spring loaded bumper, made of something sturdy, not necessarily even steel, but with a thick rubbber outer cover. Think of bumper cars.

And if you just tapped someone, the heavy springs would move in, the rubber would prevent scratching, and no damage would be done.

It would stick out maybe a foot in front and back, and offer REAL protection for the car, for low speed dings, and be ugly as hell, but would actually be functional and SAVE money, and the insurance companies might even give discounts for choosing them as an option or adding them.

I mentioned this in another post in this thread. They did that in the late

70's and early 80's. Talk about UGLY!!

But you make a point. Do you go for looks, or some semblance of safety?

My 88 Supra has bumpers on it. I don't think they look bad. My Scion has no visible bumpber in the front, it's under the front facia. It sort of has a rear bumper...

Take a look at the bumpers on this:

here's a big bumper you can't see:

Ahh, but they DO - that's the whole rationale behind the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and a few other lesser known labs - they figure out how resistant a car is to accident damage and/or how expensive to fix, and they rate the cars on a sliding scale. The insurance companies use those ratings to set the rates.

Buy a car that is ultra expensive to repair, like Corvette, Lamborghini or Maserati, and the rates reflect it.

This is why many parents do not get their kids on the family policy, they are on their own separate (but associated) policy and are restricted to driving the Celica. They are specifically excluded from driving their parents' Mercedes and Escalade. Just having the teenager on the policy doubled the rates, but if they are allowed to drive the brand new luxury car the rates would quadruple, or worse.

They can design a decent 5 MPH bumper that also looks good. But they won't install them if the buyers will not pay a bit extra for them, not until the Feds mandate them so all automakers have to install them and all raise their prices accordingly.

If one maker puts in better bumpers and the others don't, their cars might cost less to insure and be safer to drive - but they can't sell that to the average Joe and Jane in the showrooms - the bottom line reigns. Their cars will cost more than the competition's that don't have these safety features, and they lose market share. Simple business economics.

Has been proven out over the years many times with (among other things) safety glass, padded dashboards, padded steering wheels, front and side impact airbags, seat belts, head rests, child seat anchorages, dual/split braking systems, etc. It is a great idea, but until they are all forced to install them they wont.

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I'm pro-choice.

If someone wants bumpers that look like trim but get $500 worth of damage if someone rolls back into them at a light and taps them, fine with me, it's their insurance bill.

Personally, I want them butt ugly, sticking out a foot with springs and rubber on them, so if someone rolls back like that, nothing happens and we drive away.

Oh, and if they make loud farting sounds when bumped like that, we can all have a laugh.

If they're still making loud farting sounds when we jump out and see that there's no damage, that's a plus. :)

Yeah ok, but I'm taking about something that sticks out at least a foot, so it's like an actual shield, with big assed springs to totally absorb low speed hits.

Better I guess...

Ahh, what fun is that? :)

Well, that's a conundrum - You and I would pick Bumper B, and I might pay to give it a quick coat of body-color paint so it doesn't look that bad.

But you and I are in the minority - most of the brain-dead Sheeple out there buy on looks only.

Our housekeeper just bought a RAV-4 without telling anyone what she was thinking about - Never even noticed or thought about the spare tire on the back door. The tire that hangs out 6" past the totally worthless beauty-cover bumper, and the entire rear door, rear sill, door frame, both fenders and possibly the roof panel are all toast if she ever gets hit in the rear.

The RAV-4 is deliberately designed to crumple like a cheap suit in a wreck. And on cars where a simple accident can total it (repair costs exceed residual value) the insurance rates are much higher.

They have tried that - they had airbags out for 3 or 4 years in the

1970's - but they were a ~$3,000 option when that was a big chunk of change, and nobody who was shopping for a car on price bought them.

The few that got out there were on in-stock cars ordered by the dealer as "Fully Loaded" and bought by people who just walked into the dealership, picked a car on the lot that matched their handbag, and signed whatever papers they were handed. Dealers love "barefoot pilgrims" who pay whatever they ask.

The early big airbag saves were a total surprise to the drivers of the cars - most didn't know they had airbags in the car, let alone what they did.

The Cops were just as shocked - they would roll up on a "Sure K-Injury Accident" (Dead) with a car straight into bridge abutment at high speed, call for the Coroner, and then see the driver get out and walk away from the wreck...

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Or a '94 Chrysler LHS?