@Carlos Daniel I see it everyday, we have a 1981 Ford F150 in the family with the bumpers in perfect conditiones while our 2012 Toyota Corolla is worst everyday (I use this as an example because it's the one I know better, but you can compare the bumpers of a 10 years old car with a 40 years old one and check it by your own). I'll give you the reason that they are not perfect, but something like the Renault 5's bumper could be really good, they were resistent and retractable.
@Carlos Daniel driving like a madman? they start falling off with just parking tokens that most of the times are made by other people. Also ofc old bumpers can rust if you don't take car of them in northern zones, normally with regular washing can last decades, I see 1960s trucks with original bumpers in farms all the time, but even if that does not convince you, late 80s and early 90s bumpers are really good too. I also don't know the point of a body colored bumper, they will just unpaint with minimal things, they are called bumpers for something
For the record, 5 mph front and 2.5 mph rear bumpers came into effect for the 1973 model year, then 5 mph rear bumpers in 1980. From 1980-82, the bumper wasn't allowed to crumple in more than 3/4ths of an inch, and it had to withstand both head-on and corner impacts. Lastly, 1983 was the model year that standards were relaxed back to 2.5 mph, which is where things stand today (any improvements have been voluntarily made by the manufacturers).
Actually, that's what i would describe an accident with an older car involved would look like. My grandpa ended up with part of a motor and a transmission next to him one time. But that was in one of those tanks from the '50s. Nothing is wrong with the older cars, i love them. It's just that, with the advancement in technology, newer cars will usually always be safer.
@ king pin. From personal experience, I must disagree. Two of my brothers and a friend were T-boned in a 1985 Ford Escort 3-door hatch by a Chevy Crew Cab going 60 mph. They all lived and had no life threatening injuries. I'd say it held up quite well for being as small as it was.
Haha. Well, the truth is the Volvo was designed to absorb the impact. It crushes easy but that's keeping the kinetic energy from being transferred to the passengers. Ford later incorporated this design philosophy into its vehicles, starting in earnest in the 1986 Ford Taurus, but was partially used in the engineering of the Escort and the related Ford Tempo. You guys probably got it with the Mondeo at latest, but I'm not familiar enough with European Ford products. I do want a Ford Sierra, which we got as the Merkur XR4Ti. I would quickly replace the Merkur badges with Ford ovals! I would like to find an car with a bad engine, and but the US Ford 3.0L V-6, the Vulcan, mated via a custom bellhousing to the stock T-5 5 speed manual. Lots of torque down low, very reliable engine I've enjoyed in many Ford products, including my current beloved 1995 Ford Taurus.
Yes, but that is a completely different scenario. This Escort does very well for a bumper test into a solid structure whereas many newer vehicles suffer much more damage from the same test.
These 5 mph bumpers disappeared because even though they worked well at low speeds, they were way more expensive to fix once you went over their limits. And the funny thing is the insurance industry was the one who asked for 5 mph in the first place, but by the early '80s they had had it with the repair bills and asked for a rollback on regulations. Today's bumpers are weak by comparison, but everything else about today's cars is waaaaaaaaaayyyyy stronger, and we're much better off for it.
The reason these older bumpers perform so much better than newer ones is because the federal regulations changed circa 1989. The older bumpers had to be able to sustain a 5 mph full impact with no damage, and the newer ones only have to be able to sustain a 2.5 mph impact. If you take apart an older bumper assembly, you will see that the bumpers are mounted on massive shock absorbers that are usually bolted into the frame rails.
i have a 81 same color. great car and still drives like new. 403K on it all original except 2 transmission... replaced tranny at 196k then again at 308k the ford escort is a relaibe car never left me stuck anywere.
@m27grimsby Correct; it was the U.S. Escort. Though based on the European Escort body shell, they shared few parts other than basic metric attachment hardware.
@1969pontiac1 Bumper shocks were discontinued sometime around 1984 or 85. No way your 98 Buick has them. It does however have a plastic bumper cover and possibly styofoam behind it that has some "give".
@ballader1 This is back when they still had bumper shocks on them. My 98 Buick Le Sabre still has the bumper shocks, A Honda Accord hit me going about 5 or 6 miles an hour, no damage to either car. The Honda was a 92 model. You could tell the shocks went in and returned the bumper to correct position. Paint knocked off the shocks from going in and returning back out. Need those back.
I wish my '91 Buick LeSabre had those 5 mph bumpers. The back bumper has that plastic trim around the edges, which makes it an utter pain to replace the whole thing, and someone had hit it pretty good before I had it, and it cracked the plastic trim on one side pretty good.
This did so well because its before they changed the federal bumper standard from 5mph to 2.5mph and allowed unlimited damage to the bumper covers. Today the standards for low speed bumper tests are much lower. Some cars into the late 90's earliy 2000's still met the old requirements but very few do today. Today cars do not have bumpers that jut out away from the hoods or lights as much as cars 10 years ago. My 2001 mustang actually still meets the old 5mph standard, it even came with a...
@NitroGadvRules document certifying that it meets the old 5mph standard which was much stricter in what is allowed to be damaged and how much repairs cost.
I love this video, quite interesting how modern cars are looks over solidity. This proves that cars used to be built like tanks and now they're plastic toys prone to repairs costing a fortune.
@BlackMetalWarewolf thats right. now, I understand what you meant. I wasn't able to do it before. it's true that the ford bumper makes more sense, but a lot of people buy cars for their looks. oh, and I never lost my education, in fact, you were the one who called me dumb. I do know what I need about all kinds of cars, and if I missunderstood something, it's because I'm only 16 and Portuguese.
It's because nowadays the bumpers are more to protect the driver and passengers from injury in the cabin, they're crumple zones that absorb the energy from impact. So yeah, nowadays they're not really designed to "protect" the exterior like they used to.
The height of that yellow bar and the bumper were the same thats why it did good on this test. Imagine that bar was a bit higher then it would be more damage.
The old escorts with the 5 mph shock absorber bumpers were good cars, they just rusted so darn bad, I know several that had the 2.0 Mazda Diesel, that want a looooong ways, I would love to see what one of those with airbags "retrofitted" and such do in todays crash tests. I remember the '84 Turbo GT, in its day was a hot-hatch! My friend had one and there was a crossfire 5.0 camaro that was very embarrassed!
@StoshTech ... you my friend are correct .... take a cadilac for example caddies in the 90 had 9 different computer to run the car the radio and interior and exterior lights were ran by a comuter not relays and switches .... that computer was to fail cost you over 1500 in parts and labor and by the way you was out of a car until it was fixed ... to me this is just crazy ... but yes i agree with you these new cars do have a few good things about them not many but a few .... like fuel mileage
@weasel884 ... air bags only deploy in impacts of around 28mph, a modern car would also receive hardly any damage at those speeds and any damage it does get would be cheaper to repair.
@NitroGadvRules I have a 98 Buick Park Ave and the bumper is far away enough to protect the grill and lights. They have the bumper shocks mounted to the plastic coving, the rear bumper has the shocks mounted to the bumper. This is what they need to go back two......
Omg really? a 1981 car with nothing special has $ 0 dollars for 2 tests, and the total would have been $ 1,557 in today's US dollars assuming that car was tested in 1981. (Which it was probably tested later than 81'.)
I seem to remember seeing a think on a late-night news show like 20/20 on how bumpers today are not designed at all for reducing overall damage and they showed another escort, red i think, of the same vintage where the bumper simply went back to its original form after a 5mph bump, i.e. no damage at all. I think it may have been an 83.
Actually, this car sustained 400 something dollars worth of damage. A 2007 Nissan Maxima was put through this EXACT same test and sustained over 9000 dollars worth of damage.
lol, i love the way people say "great car" when you just have seen a bumper test. A bumper test between this and a jeep cherokee and theres not much left of the hood of the ford.
Suv's strike the weakest parts of car that are not designed to handle impacts. That just means suv's are incompatible hazards and should have huge insurance fees and restrictions.
You could ping pong your car off a bollard in a parking garage back then with little to no damage. Those freaking bumpers actually worked, compare that to today, that would be thousands of dollars in damage!
GM bumpers are still good for 5 MPH. My Malibu was rear ended and the bumper wasn't even damaged, just scratched. The Bimmer and the Elantra that hit me didn't fair so well. the Bimmer's grill was busted and the Elantra had a busted radiator.
@BlackMetalWarewolf I also think so! In fact,bumper on some JDM models like Kei-cars doesn't work!! They aren't "bumper" but just an accessories!!! I think not only USDM models but also JDM models must have 5-mile bumpers.
1960's thru70'scars , the damage to the vehicles value usually catastrophic at speeds of 40mph head on into a wall or huge truck or such-but I personally drove a 73 Mercury cougar after it had the passenger-side door flattened by a 1985 ford 1/2 ton pickup (t-boned)- the guy driving the truck said he hit the car at 40 mph -didn't touch the brakes - the cougar was crossing at less than 3 mph in front of the pickup cougar's body spun away from the truck at impact .The cougar drove perf Go Ford
@weasel884 What you also have to take into consideration is the lumina is still quite an old car. In a 30mph offset crash with a 2005 Renault Espace crashing into the old 90's Espace, both cars have / had 5 star safety ratings when released, the occupants of the old Espace would have been killed where as in the new Espace they cars computer decided it did not even need to deploy the airbag, which it did not and the occupants would have walked away fine despite the car being a wreck.
@mopman94 from my experience ive had less body damage from car wrecks with cars with out air bags,metal bumpers and full frames.the cars with plastic bumpers,air bags and crumple zones gave me a broken back,shoulder,knee and messed up neck.my buick kept me safe when i rear ended a caviler and when i rear ended a honda with a lumina i wasnt so lucky
i have a 77 F100 Stepside, with a brand new paint job, just to be safe I put a cast iron rear bumper on it, idk how many cars have rear ended me, it has never bent, scratched, been scuffed, but it sure has cost other people some money after they run into it lol, they just dont make stuff like they used to haha.
My 89 Toyota Corolla got rear ended and I was amazed that the bumper did not fall off or break and the paint chipped a little bit. However the other person who had a new van, his bumper all messed up and fell off. So yea older cars have better bumpers.
@thegreatcb7 i dont agree there, as there is 2 other options you fail to mention #1: Walk. #2 drive safe, dont speed, stay off the other guys ass, dont run red lights/stopsigns because your schedule is more important then the other drivers life. and no impatient left turns
is there still any automakers having hard bumpers?my family has a Ssangyong Stavic and we had a madman crashed into the back of us at more than 40km/h(his claims) at the traffic lights. Our car came out unscatched (save from a few scratches),while his front bumper and bonnet caved in,piercing the radiator.he was driving a Daihatsu Charmant (circa 80's,large saloon).
back when they had those silly bumper laws. I may be mistaken but that car doesn't look that tough. on the rear collision it looks like the whole unibody flexed.
I had a 4-speed Mercury Lynx, which was a twin to this car. Aside from maintenance, I never had to get it fixed. Had it a little over three years/45,000 miles. It was reliable, but slow and boring.
That actually doesn't look that bad! I thought it could be worse, but for I little 80s hatchback is so damn good ,you can just leave like that and the car will be perfectly fine
I wish my 2002 M3 didn't have modern, body colored plastic bumpers. Or I wish it at least could have the black hard rubber strip that wraps around the whole bumper like on the older cars... I'm willing to sacrifice some sleek elegance for some practicality. It'll still look sporty and agressive as hell :)
What exactly is the point of this test? How often do two cars actually hit bumper to bumper? If that Escort had been braking it would have submarined under that bumper that was so neatly placed at just the right height for a non braking Escort.
@Tylerwaffleblue just because the bumper was okay doesn't mean that if your going down the road at 40 mph and you hit something that all your gonna do rebound? i think not!
See this is what I am talking about, now a days cars virtually have no bumper. The bumper on cars these days are so flat and don't stick out they don't help at all in low speed collisions like this.
its a question like, why they don't make the planes with the material of flight recording black box's material. simple, when you crash the crash pressure will not be observed by car and you will feel the excat hit pressure which will cause you to die.
@proaudiohd ya but why dont we compare a modern car like a nissan altima with this ford escort in an offset frontal @ 45mph? A lot of the front bumper rigidity was sacrificed for impact and energy absorption at higher speeds. i'll take the altima thank you.
Plastic bumpers were a pretty dumb idea when you get to thinking about it. They do clean up aerodynamics but they also increase lame insurance claims costing people money. As for whip lash that does not even become an issue until 10mph and up. The metal bumpers also functions as a crush zone except they actually could absorb some energy before the engine bay structures have to come into play while the plastic ones do not contribute much to the over all energy absorbing structure.
@weasel884 Air bags don't deploy at 6mph... Also, lets check out higher speed crashes: Modern cars: Good chances of survival, well protected by airbags Old cars: Dead, neck cracked by roof and dash crushing face and punctured heart and lungs by steering wheel column hitting ribs.
Domr modern cars have a bumper behind the plastic "skin;" an old fashioned brace that has some give in it, but doesn't fold up like a beer can when a shopping trolley hits you in a carpark. Others just don't give a damn and the only "metal" on the bumper is in the brackets to attach it to the car
There's 3 reasons why modern cars have plastic bumpers: 1. style 2. because it's cheap to make 3. because even with the slightest tap, you'll have to take your car in to get it fixed. Plastic bumpers are just a moneymaking scam. Some dumb woman rear ended me at a red light about a month ago. I have a 1974 Ford LTD, so my bumper was fine. Her bumper was totally trashed, but I just wish I had a trailer hitch. It would have been awesome if she had her rad fucked up as well.
This one car became the standard for all cars at a measly 5mph. A feat that it's bigger family member, the Taurus, would abysmally fail in the latter part of the decade.
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Look at that. An actual BUMPER.
@Carlos Daniel new bumpers start falling off after a few years...
@Carlos Daniel I see it everyday, we have a 1981 Ford F150 in the family with the bumpers in perfect conditiones while our 2012 Toyota Corolla is worst everyday (I use this as an example because it's the one I know better, but you can compare the bumpers of a 10 years old car with a 40 years old one and check it by your own). I'll give you the reason that they are not perfect, but something like the Renault 5's bumper could be really good, they were resistent and retractable.
@Carlos Daniel driving like a madman? they start falling off with just parking tokens that most of the times are made by other people. Also ofc old bumpers can rust if you don't take car of them in northern zones, normally with regular washing can last decades, I see 1960s trucks with original bumpers in farms all the time, but even if that does not convince you, late 80s and early 90s bumpers are really good too. I also don't know the point of a body colored bumper, they will just unpaint with minimal things, they are called bumpers for something
For the record, 5 mph front and 2.5 mph rear bumpers came into effect for the 1973 model year, then 5 mph rear bumpers in 1980. From 1980-82, the bumper wasn't allowed to crumple in more than 3/4ths of an inch, and it had to withstand both head-on and corner impacts.
Lastly, 1983 was the model year that standards were relaxed back to 2.5 mph, which is where things stand today (any improvements have been voluntarily made by the manufacturers).
It's amazing that a little impact like that can cause $383 worth of damage to the rear of the car!
Way better than modern cars though!
Wow, that is one tough car. Because it is old, you'd be able to buy one secondhand for like £900.
Much better than plastic crap
Actually, that's what i would describe an accident with an older car involved would look like. My grandpa ended up with part of a motor and a transmission next to him one time. But that was in one of those tanks from the '50s. Nothing is wrong with the older cars, i love them. It's just that, with the advancement in technology, newer cars will usually always be safer.
nothing happened lmao
@ king pin. From personal experience, I must disagree. Two of my brothers and a friend were T-boned in a 1985 Ford Escort 3-door hatch by a Chevy Crew Cab going 60 mph. They all lived and had no life threatening injuries. I'd say it held up quite well for being as small as it was.
Haha. Well, the truth is the Volvo was designed to absorb the impact. It crushes easy but that's keeping the kinetic energy from being transferred to the passengers.
Ford later incorporated this design philosophy into its vehicles, starting in earnest in the 1986 Ford Taurus, but was partially used in the engineering of the Escort and the related Ford Tempo.
You guys probably got it with the Mondeo at latest, but I'm not familiar enough with European Ford products.
I do want a Ford Sierra, which we got as the Merkur XR4Ti. I would quickly replace the Merkur badges with Ford ovals! I would like to find an car with a bad engine, and but the US Ford 3.0L V-6, the Vulcan, mated via a custom bellhousing to the stock T-5 5 speed manual. Lots of torque down low, very reliable engine I've enjoyed in many Ford products, including my current beloved 1995 Ford Taurus.
Whats neat about the old bumper systems from that time period is that the bumper has a sort of suspension to absorb small impacts.
Yes, but that is a completely different scenario. This Escort does very well for a bumper test into a solid structure whereas many newer vehicles suffer much more damage from the same test.
my mom had a 1981 ford escort station wagon, got rid of it in 1997 for a '93 Mercury Topaz.
Why is this in my recommendations after 11 years?
These 5 mph bumpers disappeared because even though they worked well at low speeds, they were way more expensive to fix once you went over their limits. And the funny thing is the insurance industry was the one who asked for 5 mph in the first place, but by the early '80s they had had it with the repair bills and asked for a rollback on regulations.
Today's bumpers are weak by comparison, but everything else about today's cars is waaaaaaaaaayyyyy stronger, and we're much better off for it.
This looks good till you realise it's not in slow motion.
john bumptybump
It is..?
Your parents are siblings
@@TheStarvingEntrepreneur 🤣
The reason these older bumpers perform so much better than newer ones is because the federal regulations changed circa 1989. The older bumpers had to be able to sustain a 5 mph full impact with no damage, and the newer ones only have to be able to sustain a 2.5 mph impact. If you take apart an older bumper assembly, you will see that the bumpers are mounted on massive shock absorbers that are usually bolted into the frame rails.
i had a 1981 two door years ago. when i was 17 it was a great car for a kid to beat the piss out of. you couldnt kill it.
pure steel right there
@proaudiohd actually the bumpers are more meant to protect pedestrians from serious injuries.
i have a 81 same color. great car and still drives like new. 403K on it all original except 2 transmission... replaced tranny at 196k then again at 308k the ford escort is a relaibe car never left me stuck anywere.
@m27grimsby Correct; it was the U.S. Escort. Though based on the European Escort body shell, they shared few parts other than basic metric attachment hardware.
Damage? What damage?
Costs probably aren’t adjusted for inflation though.
@1969pontiac1 Bumper shocks were discontinued sometime around 1984 or 85. No way your 98 Buick has them. It does however have a plastic bumper cover and possibly styofoam behind it that has some "give".
@jves
Modern cars still have bumpers. They're installed under the plastic covers (fascia).
@ballader1 This is back when they still had bumper shocks on them. My 98 Buick Le Sabre still has the bumper shocks, A Honda Accord hit me going about 5 or 6 miles an hour, no damage to either car. The Honda was a 92 model. You could tell the shocks went in and returned the bumper to correct position. Paint knocked off the shocks from going in and returning back out. Need those back.
love the bumper assemblence
I wish my '91 Buick LeSabre had those 5 mph bumpers. The back bumper has that plastic trim around the edges, which makes it an utter pain to replace the whole thing, and someone had hit it pretty good before I had it, and it cracked the plastic trim on one side pretty good.
Even though I heard from some owners of their 80s Escorts being crap, this was still in a a time when they made real bumpers
They switched to fully plastic bumpers with the 1988.5 facelift.
What speeds are these bumper tests at? How did this escort compare to other vehicles of the time in safety?
Do you have any of these videos for the Escort based 1982-83 Mercury LN7 or the 1982-88 Ford EXP?
This did so well because its before they changed the federal bumper standard from 5mph to 2.5mph and allowed unlimited damage to the bumper covers. Today the standards for low speed bumper tests are much lower. Some cars into the late 90's earliy 2000's still met the old requirements but very few do today. Today cars do not have bumpers that jut out away from the hoods or lights as much as cars 10 years ago. My 2001 mustang actually still meets the old 5mph standard, it even came with a...
@NitroGadvRules document certifying that it meets the old 5mph standard which was much stricter in what is allowed to be damaged and how much repairs cost.
@GreenFighter Awesome. That shows us how expensive are spare parts as that dude had to change whole bumper which is huge.
I love this video, quite interesting how modern cars are looks over solidity. This proves that cars used to be built like tanks and now they're plastic toys prone to repairs costing a fortune.
I love the 80s-mid 90s escorts and sierras.
Built Ford Tough.
@BlackMetalWarewolf thats right. now, I understand what you meant. I wasn't able to do it before. it's true that the ford bumper makes more sense, but a lot of people buy cars for their looks. oh, and I never lost my education, in fact, you were the one who called me dumb. I do know what I need about all kinds of cars, and if I missunderstood something, it's because I'm only 16 and Portuguese.
They made that version in '85, but I believe it originally came out in '81. My grandma had an '84 and it looked just like this one.
True... the "bumpers" on most cars now a days are only supposed to work in crashes that are 3 MPH and under
It's because nowadays the bumpers are more to protect the driver and passengers from injury in the cabin, they're crumple zones that absorb the energy from impact. So yeah, nowadays they're not really designed to "protect" the exterior like they used to.
The height of that yellow bar and the bumper were the same thats why it did good on this test. Imagine that bar was a bit higher then it would be more damage.
The old escorts with the 5 mph shock absorber bumpers were good cars, they just rusted so darn bad, I know several that had the 2.0 Mazda Diesel, that want a looooong ways, I would love to see what one of those with airbags "retrofitted" and such do in todays crash tests. I remember the '84 Turbo GT, in its day was a hot-hatch! My friend had one and there was a crossfire 5.0 camaro that was very embarrassed!
@MrGuitartramp no, repair costs
@StoshTech ... you my friend are correct .... take a cadilac for example caddies in the 90 had 9 different computer to run the car the radio and interior and exterior lights were ran by a comuter not relays and switches .... that computer was to fail cost you over 1500 in parts and labor and by the way you was out of a car until it was fixed ... to me this is just crazy ... but yes i agree with you these new cars do have a few good things about them not many but a few .... like fuel mileage
@jtreign9097 you have a 1981 ford escort? really? NICE Car! i Loved these cars..still got yours?
now THAT'S A BUMPER!
@weasel884 ... air bags only deploy in impacts of around 28mph, a modern car would also receive hardly any damage at those speeds and any damage it does get would be cheaper to repair.
@NitroGadvRules I have a 98 Buick Park Ave and the bumper is far away enough to protect the grill and lights. They have the bumper shocks mounted to the plastic coving, the rear bumper has the shocks mounted to the bumper. This is what they need to go back two......
Omg really? a 1981 car with nothing special has $ 0 dollars for 2 tests, and the total would have been $ 1,557 in today's US dollars assuming that car was tested in 1981. (Which it was probably tested later than 81'.)
lol. They just don't make cars like they used to.
That Escort would be driving home. Nothing of serious importance was harmed in any of the tests.
Very strong made.
I seem to remember seeing a think on a late-night news show like 20/20 on how bumpers today are not designed at all for reducing overall damage and they showed another escort, red i think, of the same vintage where the bumper simply went back to its original form after a 5mph bump, i.e. no damage at all. I think it may have been an 83.
Actually, this car sustained 400 something dollars worth of damage. A 2007 Nissan Maxima was put through this EXACT same test and sustained over 9000 dollars worth of damage.
Where did they find that old car? It's in very good condition
I used to own a 82 Escort. This video has the wrong title, it was actually the 1/4 mile trap speed.
lol, i love the way people say "great car" when you just have seen a bumper test.
A bumper test between this and a jeep cherokee and theres not much left of the hood of the ford.
Suv's strike the weakest parts of car that are not designed to handle impacts. That just means suv's are incompatible hazards and should have huge insurance fees and restrictions.
You could ping pong your car off a bollard in a parking garage back then with little to no damage. Those freaking bumpers actually worked, compare that to today, that would be thousands of dollars in damage!
GM bumpers are still good for 5 MPH. My Malibu was rear ended and the bumper wasn't even damaged, just scratched. The Bimmer and the Elantra that hit me didn't fair so well. the Bimmer's grill was busted and the Elantra had a busted radiator.
@BlackMetalWarewolf I also think so!
In fact,bumper on some JDM models like Kei-cars doesn't work!!
They aren't "bumper" but just an accessories!!!
I think not only USDM models but also JDM models must have 5-mile bumpers.
1960's thru70'scars , the damage to the vehicles value usually catastrophic at speeds of 40mph head on into a wall or huge truck or such-but I personally drove a 73 Mercury cougar after it had the passenger-side door flattened by a 1985 ford 1/2 ton pickup (t-boned)- the guy driving the truck said he hit the car at 40 mph -didn't touch the brakes - the cougar was crossing at less than 3 mph in front of the pickup cougar's body spun away from the truck at impact .The cougar drove perf
Go Ford
When my dad's 83 Mercury Marquis bumper was pushed in he just tied a rope to it and and a tree and pulled it out by driving in reverse. Good as new.
@TheThingyThings That was probably to replace the engine after that collision we just saw there.
@hillygrill66 all cars have metal bumpers. what you're seeing is a plastic bumper cover. take that off and you'll see the metal bumper underneath.
@weasel884 What you also have to take into consideration is the lumina is still quite an old car. In a 30mph offset crash with a 2005 Renault Espace crashing into the old 90's Espace, both cars have / had 5 star safety ratings when released, the occupants of the old Espace would have been killed where as in the new Espace they cars computer decided it did not even need to deploy the airbag, which it did not and the occupants would have walked away fine despite the car being a wreck.
@mopman94 from my experience ive had less body damage from car wrecks with cars with out air bags,metal bumpers and full frames.the cars with plastic bumpers,air bags and crumple zones gave me a broken back,shoulder,knee and messed up neck.my buick kept me safe when i rear ended a caviler and when i rear ended a honda with a lumina i wasnt so lucky
@hillygrill66 the problem with that is that metal bends whereas plastic can reform back into shape :D
i have a 77 F100 Stepside, with a brand new paint job, just to be safe I put a cast iron rear bumper on it, idk how many cars have rear ended me, it has never bent, scratched, been scuffed, but it sure has cost other people some money after they run into it lol, they just dont make stuff like they used to haha.
That is true, but few of them do as well in this test.
yeah, you're right. I didn't even notice that. cars today don't even have bumpers.
When cars had real bumpers
@BlackMetalWarewolf
You are just CRAZY
@38Squid what happend when they got rusty? Oh And was it a good car?
My 89 Toyota Corolla got rear ended and I was amazed that the bumper did not fall off or break and the paint chipped a little bit. However the other person who had a new van, his bumper all messed up and fell off. So yea older cars have better bumpers.
the difference is that the driver in this car wont be around after a high speed crash
was that in slow motion?
@thegreatcb7 i dont agree there, as there is 2 other options you fail to mention #1: Walk. #2 drive safe, dont speed, stay off the other guys ass, dont run red lights/stopsigns because your schedule is more important then the other drivers life. and no impatient left turns
is there still any automakers having hard bumpers?my family has a Ssangyong Stavic and we had a madman crashed into the back of us at more than 40km/h(his claims) at the traffic lights. Our car came out unscatched (save from a few scratches),while his front bumper and bonnet caved in,piercing the radiator.he was driving a Daihatsu Charmant (circa 80's,large saloon).
holy shit i was shocked by the major crashes in this video
back when they had those silly bumper laws.
I may be mistaken but that car doesn't look that tough. on the rear collision it looks like the whole unibody flexed.
pancakewafflebacon wow you have intiligance you should work in the IIHS you will be having so much fun
it did, in fact i have this car, you can flex the doors with your hands
Is that $86 in 2011 US Dollars or 1981 US Dollars?
I had a 4-speed Mercury Lynx, which was a twin to this car. Aside from maintenance, I never had to get it fixed. Had it a little over three years/45,000 miles. It was reliable, but slow and boring.
not bad for a 70mph crash test, escort ftw!!!!
That actually doesn't look that bad! I thought it could be worse, but for I little 80s hatchback is so damn good ,you can just leave like that and the car will be perfectly fine
i'm sure just about every 1981 Ford Escort thats left has seen at least one of these collisions.
I wish my 2002 M3 didn't have modern, body colored plastic bumpers. Or I wish it at least could have the black hard rubber strip that wraps around the whole bumper like on the older cars...
I'm willing to sacrifice some sleek elegance for some practicality. It'll still look sporty and agressive as hell :)
@1969fordtruck exactly what pos car did i buy now?
What exactly is the point of this test? How often do two cars actually hit bumper to bumper? If that Escort had been braking it would have submarined under that bumper that was so neatly placed at just the right height for a non braking Escort.
Is that at 100 mph?? Great car!
@Dzmitrychabatar No,It's the cost of the car with fully equipped and customized.
@Tylerwaffleblue just because the bumper was okay doesn't mean that if your going down the road at 40 mph and you hit something that all your gonna do rebound? i think not!
See this is what I am talking about, now a days cars virtually have no bumper. The bumper on cars these days are so flat and don't stick out they don't help at all in low speed collisions like this.
its a question like, why they don't make the planes with the material of flight recording black box's material.
simple, when you crash the crash pressure will not be observed by car and you will feel the excat hit pressure which will cause you to die.
back then they HAD bumpers... now its molded as a part of the body, or in the case of some cars, part of the hatchback door
was the escort a good car?
The 5MPH Bumper Tests apparently totalled Yugos
Ford, construit pour durée =')
Vive la ford escort :-D
@proaudiohd ya but why dont we compare a modern car like a nissan altima with this ford escort in an offset frontal @ 45mph? A lot of the front bumper rigidity was sacrificed for impact and energy absorption at higher speeds. i'll take the altima thank you.
Plastic bumpers were a pretty dumb idea when you get to thinking about it.
They do clean up aerodynamics but they also increase lame insurance claims costing people money.
As for whip lash that does not even become an issue until 10mph and up.
The metal bumpers also functions as a crush zone except they actually could absorb some energy before the engine bay structures have to come into play while the plastic ones do not contribute much to the over all energy absorbing structure.
@weasel884 Air bags don't deploy at 6mph...
Also, lets check out higher speed crashes:
Modern cars: Good chances of survival, well protected by airbags
Old cars: Dead, neck cracked by roof and dash crushing face and punctured heart and lungs by steering wheel column hitting ribs.
Domr modern cars have a bumper behind the plastic "skin;" an old fashioned brace that has some give in it, but doesn't fold up like a beer can when a shopping trolley hits you in a carpark. Others just don't give a damn and the only "metal" on the bumper is in the brackets to attach it to the car
There's 3 reasons why modern cars have plastic bumpers:
1. style
2. because it's cheap to make
3. because even with the slightest tap, you'll have to take your car in to get it fixed.
Plastic bumpers are just a moneymaking scam.
Some dumb woman rear ended me at a red light about a month ago. I have a 1974 Ford LTD, so my bumper was fine. Her bumper was totally trashed, but I just wish I had a trailer hitch. It would have been awesome if she had her rad fucked up as well.
This one car became the standard for all cars at a measly 5mph.
A feat that it's bigger family member, the Taurus, would abysmally fail in the latter part of the decade.