Bumpers - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Talk about sports cars, aeroplanes, ships, rockets etc.

Moderator: PoFo The Lounge Mods

User avatar
By Zagadka
#13625015
I lament and abhor the plight we are in where almost every vehicle produced has had their bumpers replaced with cheap plastic crap that just happens to be one large molded section so any ding means having to replace the entire rear half of your damn car.

Bumpers ar- er, sorry, were, there to allow very low speed touches to be absorbed, not causing damage to the body of the vehicle. Cars SHOULDN'T collide, but when they do, they should have some goddamn absorption. Consumers could save a lot of money from insurance.

And there should be some standard height. I'm tired of pulling up behind a SUV or truck and be looking straight into the rear axle because the body is 5' off the ground. Semi trucks explicitly have bumpers hanging down to car level. I don't want to get a goddamn trailer hitch to the forehead.

</rant>
User avatar
By MB.
#13634779
What I can't stand is the STUPID grills that every car has these days. What the fuck is this back to the Edsel again?

Image


Image

Remember kids: the bigger the grill, the bigger your dick!


I know why the car companies did this too: the bigger grill makes people feel like their car has MO POWA even though every single car uses the same basic underpowered V6 engine.
User avatar
By Thunderhawk
#13635157
In theory the larger grill allows more air in to cool the radiator. In practice, I dont know if they need such a large grille, nor if they even need it at all as air could be and is channeled in through other methods.

As for uniform height on bumpers, various countries passed min/max heights for bumpers, but since many of the bumpers are covered with body work to blend the bumper into the rest of the car's exterior, the actual inital impact points vary in position. When you add in different tire sizes and suspension arrangements bumpers can soon become battering rams. Several car companies have adopted internal standards and many companies have common heights they use and are usable by others (as well as other standards), but there remains variation.
User avatar
By Voltaire
#13635667
In theory the larger grill allows more air in to cool the radiator.


LOL, these cars aren't going to be running hot enough to need that extra airflow, that only really matters if it is a high performance vehicle and/or a racecar, which get along just fine with much much smaller, mandated grills. So it is purely a "look thing", but yes in theory that would be true, except it's not.
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13635833
Image

A lot of British imports needed to be retrofitted with giant black bumper protectors to meet stringent North American safety standards.

We don't mind using a lot of gas, and destroying our towns and cities for our cars, we don't care about killing thousands of our kids with our vehicles, but it's good marketing to make them as safe-looking as possible.

Bike helmets are just as ugly as these black rubber things.
User avatar
By Capitalist
#13636059
I think the reason why bumpers are made weak on purpose is that the front and rear of a modern car are designed to absorb the impact of a high speed collision, protecting the driver and passengers. By adding a metal bumper it reduces the ability of the car to absorb impacts at high speeds.

This video shows how unsafe a car from the "they don't build them like they use to" era is:

[youtube]3uOYKP-SYeE[/youtube]
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13636935
Back when cars were more dangerous, you had to drive them more slowly.

Now, you can go as fast as you want and you'll never die. Ever.
Israel-Palestinian War 2023

@JohnRawls No. Your perception of it is not. I g[…]

Russia-Ukraine War 2022

I'd be totally happy for us to send ground troop i[…]

Any of you going to buy the Trump bible he's promo[…]

There were formidable defense lines in the Donbas[…]