New plastic vs old steel. Who wins?

[emmett442]

Rear ended during an early morning cruise. The heavy step bumper was certainly an asset in this case!




Here's the "damage". A chain, a tree, a beer, and it'll be good as new! Zero paint/sheetmetal damage.


The picture of the Cruze doesn't show well, but there's a bit of damage there. New hood, bumper, and headlight assemblies at a minimum.

 

[Kira]

Was the Cruze driver texting or did you back into him?

 

[VeryNoisyPoet]

Glad you're okay and that there's not much damage.

That is the trade off for new designs that crumple to absorb energy (and need lots of repair) compared with older designs that take the hit but transfer much more of the impact to the occupants. Watch out for any back or neck pain that comes up later today.

Was the other driver distracted? Pretty hard to miss a big red pickup!

 

[E150GT]

I tell you, plastic is pretty resilient. I "love tapped" a Honda Pilot with my F-150 with a steel bumper. Not even a scratch on the pilot. My bumper is jacked. A couple years ago a guy in a 90's Chevy truck rear ended me in my 2010 Mazda 3. No damage to my car. At least not visible. I dont remember what the truck looked like.

 

[emmett442]

Don't worry, no injuries. This was back on Monday morning.

I'm aware of the safety implications of older vehicles. I posted this because I thought the contrasting damage between the two vehicles was humorous - not because I thought one was better than the other

The other driver rear ended me, likely distracted.

Originally Posted By: E150GT
I tell you, plastic is pretty resilient. I "love tapped" a Honda Pilot with my F-150 with a steel bumper. Not even a scratch on the pilot. My bumper is jacked. A couple years ago a guy in a 90's Chevy truck rear ended me in my 2010 Mazda 3. No damage to my car. At least not visible. I dont remember what the truck looked like.


By the '90's, steel bumpers on pickups weren't nearly as rigid as the older trucks that weren't subject to the same efficiency standards (I don't think pickups were subject to bumper safety standards yet?). The bumpers on this old Dodge are A LOT heavier than the cheeseball units on '95 F150 or truck of any make. My old '98 F150 had some pretty weak steel bumpers in comparison. It wouldn't have fared nearly as well.

 

[Gimpy1]

Old school steel= occupants lose, modern plastics= vehicle loses occupants survive. That age old idea that solid steel is [censored]. The occupants are the most important thing in a vehicle. Consumer reports made a great video on this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXeJT0wwPPg . Modern cars disintegrating on impact are essentially dissipating energy so that the humans inside don't absorb that energy and are slowing down at a lesser rate. Its all physics.

 

[emmett442]

Originally Posted By: Gimpy1
Old school steel= occupants lose, modern plastics= vehicle loses occupants survive. That age old idea that solid steel is [censored]. The occupants are the most important thing in a vehicle. Consumer reports made a great video on this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXeJT0wwPPg . Modern cars disintegrating on impact are essentially dissipating energy so that the humans inside don't absorb that energy and are slowing down at a lesser rate. Its all physics.


Yeah, I hate to speak for everyone, but I'm pretty sure we're all aware.

Maybe I should've worded my original post differently. I'm not touting the old truck's safety. I know it's a rolling death trap in comparison to anything newer. I tried not to go there in the original post, but I should have figured people would still gravitate towards that topic.

Since nothing was hurt but the vehicles themselves, it's all about the vehicles in this case. It's easy (for me, at least) to be amused by the difference in damage, since it means I was able to drive away without any implications from this minor accident. Made me happy. I wouldn't be so light hearted about it all if people were hurt.

 

[Chris142]

I took my 73 international to the car wash. It somehow had a roller roll under the wheel, the truck rolled back into the wash with nobody including me noticing. It backed into a Sentra. Did what looked like major damage to the sentra. Hood,grill,fenders,lights etc.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: E150GT
I tell you, plastic is pretty resilient. I "love tapped" a Honda Pilot with my F-150 with a steel bumper. Not even a scratch on the pilot. My bumper is jacked. A couple years ago a guy in a 90's Chevy truck rear ended me in my 2010 Mazda 3. No damage to my car. At least not visible. I dont remember what the truck looked like.


Yeah but if you damaged the steel bumper on your truck, the pilot likely had damage under the plastic bumper. Plastic often pops back out, and when I worked claims I saw cars with bumpers that just had a scratch, but behind the bumper was a bunch of damage.

 

[Inspecktor]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Originally Posted By: E150GT
I tell you, plastic is pretty resilient. I "love tapped" a Honda Pilot with my F-150 with a steel bumper. Not even a scratch on the pilot. My bumper is jacked. A couple years ago a guy in a 90's Chevy truck rear ended me in my 2010 Mazda 3. No damage to my car. At least not visible. I dont remember what the truck looked like.


Yeah but if you damaged the steel bumper on your truck, the pilot likely had damage under the plastic bumper. Plastic often pops back out, and when I worked claims I saw cars with bumpers that just had a scratch, but behind the bumper was a bunch of damage.
Agreed. Had a car get rear ended, the bumper cover looked fine, but underlying foam and mounts were badly damaged.

 

[RichR]

I think the '74 still had the tank behind the seats?

 

[emmett442]

No, in-frame plastic gas tank. I believe the first year available...

 

[RichR]

Back in the 80's
A man I worked for had a '72-3
We called "the War Wagon"
It had 1/4"steel plate floor and 1/8" side boards.
We dropped radiators out of third
floor windows into it.
Your truck is a beautiful MOPAR.

 

[bullwinkle]

I bet the distracted driver slammed on the brakes at the last instant, causing his front end to dive under your bumper, which munched everything above his bumper. I had a guy in a Camry rear end my company E-350 when I was stopped at a light over here in KY-he slammed on his brakes at the last instant & everything above his bumper was pushed back a FOOT! My aftermarket trailer connector (screwed on under the bumper) broke off (but still worked!)...

 

[maxdustington]

Guy in the first pic looks devastated, guy in the second pic not a care in the world lol. Perfect!

 

[pandus13]

Originally Posted By: maxdustington
Guy in the first pic looks devastated, guy in the second pic not a care in the world lol. Perfect!

Of course... He is color blind...