dicer

Not with the (political bunch micro managing). The mid to late 50's were some of the best design cars there were. Back then styling was at its pinnacle, never ever to return in the automotive world. Ever since then its been boxes (rounded boxes) and blisters. The fins are too dangerous "they say", even a chrome bumper will never be seen on a new car, "its too hard, chrome is worse than a nuke plant, its too heavy, and there are likely many more excuses how bad it is". So instead of making cars really safe all the cosmetics is what is regulated.

mmarshall

Weight is part of the issue, but the main reason we don't see metal-chromed bumpers today is because of corrosion. Even keeping them waxed, those old steel chromed bumpers would notoriously rust, and you would have to take them off and get them re-plated. They became even heavier and bulkier, of course, in 1973 with the new bumper-impact laws.

GTSLEX

iTrader: (2)

I'm not a huge fan of Lexus new grills. I think if something needs to grow on you to like it, it's generally not that good looking.

If Lexus wanted their cars with more presence on the road they could have done it more tastefully. Perhaps by using more aggressive/ sporty fenders that give appearance of wide stance and toned down, better shaped/traditional looking grills with some bling on it.

SW17LS

Let me get this straight...are you saying that cars today are less safe than cars from the 50s?

Thats absurd.

dicer

Show me where I said that. You sound like a tv news person switch around and make a person say something they didn't.

I did not elaborate on what I considered SAFE. A safe car is one that is going to keep its occupants safe and alive. If a 80,000 pound truck hits a car its a goner, and I'm not elaborating on that one just yet either. A place to start for safeness is a race proven roll cage or crash cage designed into the car.

mmarshall

Certainly not IMO. Today's cars, in general, are probably the safest ones ever built, at least in terms of protecting their occupants in a crash. The only possible exceptions, in the American market, are the Smart-for-Two, and (to a lesser extent) the Scion iQ......they are simply too small and light, despite safety equipment and a roll-cage, for what I would consider reasonable security in an accident.

Prinny

Stupid site. A lot of those dumb articles are written by the same guy, but Doug is pretty funny

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsq...JYTaEnf_vmTNqg

Stroock639

i think he did right here lmao

Stroock639

support from the LFA guy...

SW17LS

Precisely lol

Stroock639

you gotta love dicer... let's not forget this is the man who once said that if there's anything the LS needs, it's a lift kit because it comes too low stock

dicer

The statement was that I said the , OLDER CARS WERE SAFER. I did not say that did I?
Funny how people knee jerk everything.

Soft bumpers do not make the car safer for the occupants. Thin sheet metal does not make the car safer for the occupants. The lack of a good cage structure does not make the car safer for the occupant and of lately not even an air bag does either. All the air bag does is cushion the initial impact of the occupants body flying forward or to the side. It will not stop a crushing injury. A roll cage or crash cage would and the best of all it doesn't have some high pressure deploy device that will cause metal to fly into your face and body. And no I am not saying to get rid of airbags they would still be needed.

SW17LS

He is hilarious lol

And then he says exactly that in the very next paragraph:

You don't flat out say it, but thats what you are inferring when you say how the way cars are now is unsafe, and how cars were then is safe. The reasonable inference is that you think old cars are safer than new cars.

The proof is in the result. There are many independent entities throughout the world that test vehicles for safety, track records of accident injury and death...there is NO argument that we don't live in a time when cars are the safest they have ever been. It is just a fact that airbags make cars safer. Accident fatalities are way down, and more cars pass stricter and stricter crash testing every year. Just look at what happened when they introduced the small offset test a few years ago. EVERYBODY failed...now everybody passes with flying colors. Cars got SAFER.

You have to understand physics. SOFT=safe, HARD=unsafe. In a crash, crash forces need to dissipate. Thats why vehicles crush and deform around the passenger structure, it dissipates crash forces before those forces get to the occupants of the car. Why do you think race cars fly apart in an accident? To dissipate crash forces. Why do you think the Nascar accident that killed Dale Earnhardt looked so minor? Because the dissipating happened within his body.

Soft bumpers DO make cars safer. They absorb low speed impacts, they are part of a system that absorbs high speed impacts, they protect pedestrians on the road. Technology allows thinner, lighter metals and materials to be just as strong or stronger as older heavier, thicker metals.

We have crash tests that show how accident forces effect the passenger compartment, whether there is intrusion into that compartment, etc. All you have to do is look at old tests and new tests...its plain to see.

An enormous amount of engineering has gone into making cars safer over the past 35-40 years or so, and we see the result of that. Its irrefutable.

Stroock639

IS250 anyone?

a 5 star rating 20 years ago isn't a 5 star rating today, much of which is to do with why cars have gotten so rounded and bloated. bigger crumple zones = more energy dissipation and fewer dead people.

personally i don't like how cars have become so big and i'd be ok to buy a car that got 5 stars in 2000 even if it means 4 or 3 now

this speaks many words

SW17LS

The issue with that diagram of the Accord is when the accord was redesigned after 2010 it actually got smaller lol.

Its true though, cars have gotten a lot bigger.

Its also why sedans have such a high nose line now, pedestrian safety.