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Insane overengineering of a car headlight

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james_s:

--- Quote from: Bassman59 on February 17, 2022, 03:20:30 pm ---There's a reason for this.

The cars are sacrificed to save the life and limbs of the drivers and passengers in the cars, which are the real "expensive bits."

Those big steel bumpers we remember on our grandfathers' cars? They transferred the energy of the impact to the driver and passengers. Sure, the paint job was spared, but passengers were injured.

Design changes like this is one reason why deaths per capita have gone down while the number of miles driven every year keeps going up. Drivers surely aren't better drivers.

--- End quote ---

Maybe you missed the 30 years or so between the big rigidly mounted steel bumpers and the expensive painted bodywork that is in place of bumpers on modern cars. My cars have heavy duty bumpers mounted on shock absorbers that can compress a good 6 inches to absorb impacts. They are aluminum and covered with a heavy duty un-painted and easily replaceable plastic skin. The crumple zones are there too, and I had the unfortunate opportunity to try them out on one occasion. More minor impacts are absorbed by the bumpers without damage though.

coppice:

--- Quote from: james_s on March 06, 2022, 02:32:04 am ---
--- Quote from: Bassman59 on February 17, 2022, 03:20:30 pm ---There's a reason for this.

The cars are sacrificed to save the life and limbs of the drivers and passengers in the cars, which are the real "expensive bits."

Those big steel bumpers we remember on our grandfathers' cars? They transferred the energy of the impact to the driver and passengers. Sure, the paint job was spared, but passengers were injured.

Design changes like this is one reason why deaths per capita have gone down while the number of miles driven every year keeps going up. Drivers surely aren't better drivers.

--- End quote ---

Maybe you missed the 30 years or so between the big rigidly mounted steel bumpers and the expensive painted bodywork that is in place of bumpers on modern cars. My cars have heavy duty bumpers mounted on shock absorbers that can compress a good 6 inches to absorb impacts. They are aluminum and covered with a heavy duty un-painted and easily replaceable plastic skin. The crumple zones are there too, and I had the unfortunate opportunity to try them out on one occasion. More minor impacts are absorbed by the bumpers without damage though.

--- End quote ---
The Volvo you showed was far ahead of its competition for crash safety when it was launched in the 1980s. It would crush most other cars in an impact, while its occupants walked away. However, the standard of crash protection has progressed a lot. Even a small modern car does very well in an impact with that Volvo, and in some glancing impacts, and side impacts will do better than the Volvo. Visually comparing that 1980s Volvo with my new V90, the old one kinda looks a lot more robust. However, crash the two into each other, and I could walk away while you die.

SilverSolder:
I remember being rear-ended by a VW Jetta while driving a rented Buick LeSabre in around 2005.  The Jetta had to be towed... radiator sprung a leak.   ...while the Buick...  you literally could not tell it had been in a crash, not even a scratch in the painted bumper.  Looking underneath, I saw why - a big aluminum bumper with shock absorbers hidden under the painted flexible bumper.   I was pretty impressed with General Motors that day!

PlainName:

--- Quote ---More minor impacts are absorbed by the bumpers without damage though.
--- End quote ---

I had someone run into the back of my car. Trashed their headlights and put a dent in the bonnet. My rear end looked OK but I took it into a garage anyway to check, and the chap just gave the back an almighty kick and said "They take a huge bang before being damaged". It's a Golf with no apparent bumber, but having taken it off I can say it's shell over the crumble-zone bodywork.

I wonder if it's part of NCAP, perhap about taking off pedestrians legs? The bumpers on your motor are fine, but when a typical rear-ender occurs the back of yours is up in the air and the front of theirs is dragging the ground, so the impacts aren't where you'd expect when looking at a static car. Perhaps they reason that a prang that will damage the shell-as-bumper would do for your bodywork anyway, so might as well make it look nice.

Monkeh:

--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on March 06, 2022, 06:19:38 pm ---I wonder if it's part of NCAP, perhap about taking off pedestrians legs?

--- End quote ---

Pedestrian safety is exactly why the exterior bodywork is softer today. It turns out you can't trust people with upwards of a tonne of metal and have to take measures to protect others from them.

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