Cars have passed existing side crash "regulations" since the 90s/2000s. That's not what "tall slab sides" are for. And wheel size isn't really having much to do with anything--if there's any implications there. The Model 3 for example has the opposite of tall slab sides (extremely narrow sides) with a tall glass greenhouse and it's stronger than anything toyota or lexus or mercedes or volvo made for that matter. good design gets you strength.

"the slab sides" is just design trends. not sure where this guy got that idea that it's needed or used to pass "Crash regulations." and not sure what any of this has to do with poor wheel choices.

 

It does have a lot to do with regulations, among them the requirement for greater pedestrian protection, which has changed the positioning of the hood lines, which, in turn, flow into the body and must correspond with the belt line, which has also raised. Side impact standards, while not new as you point out, are likely stronger than in decades past. Finally a lot is due to styling, where the almost wedge shape of cars seems to be the dominant theme,

 

The federal standards for side impacts have been in place for a while. What has increased are other private testing body standards (euroncap, iihs etc) which is what most manufacturers aim for, but it's not required by law in the US.

I've been studying this for over 20 years and have a ton of internal data, spreadsheets, 3d scans, etc, stuff that isn't published online to general public. So I know the makeup for all cars, their history etc. this is my bread and butter topic =)

My point is stock wheels are part of the crash package of most manufacturer's crash programmes (most) there's a few companies that don't do much edge-testing or outside the box testing (hint: toyota is one of them) but toyota does include the wheels as part of the crash package as of around 2015-2016. most companies do. My point in this thread is aftermarket wheels are a no-go for safety. please don't take my comment and add your own weird/misleading/uninformed/misinformed twist and pass it off as objective truth.

the words: slab styling, wedge shape, etc are really just for stuff like aesthetics, aero etc. not really safety driven. in fact the superior shape for "safety" would be squares or triangles like a box truck or cybertruck. you don't need a slab to be strong. if that were the case the ES with its slab side would have a stronger side than something like a model 3. and that's not at ALL the case.. in fact like i posted before, Corolla/Camry are stronger than ES on side. so there goes the arguments for slab sides.. that's just sheet metal lol. what counts is underneath.....................................................

 

I don’t disagree with most of your points yet you seem to have some odd chip on your shoulder about it. So please spare me the condescending “weird/misleading/uninformed/misinformed twist” nonsense.