Following on from the 'first plastic wheel hub' and 'last starting handle' threads, does anyone care to hazard a guess as to the first car with plastic bumpers (now universal) and the last car with metal bumpers (once universal)?
My opening guess is Renault 5 (1971?) for first plastic bumpers and 2CV (1990) for last metal bumpers.
|
93 maestro with metal bumpers
|
Last metal bumpers - Lada Riva?
S6 1SW
|
Quite a few cars had plastic end caps before complete plastic bumpers, marinas, mk3 escorts, mk4 cortinas etc.
-----------------------------------------------
2005 Ford Mondeo Zetec 2.0 TDCi 130ps
|
Hilux still has metal bumpers, doesn't it?
|
|
Jeep Cherokee still has metal bumpers, or did until recently.
|
Metal girder faced in plastic, a la Volvo, or just plastic? Mailed fist in velvet glove?
There were rather smart bumpers from long ago consisting of a steel girder with chromed uprights at each end, with a kind of long flat cartspring on edge stretched between the two.
|
Hey CP, yes!
My 1948 Citroen Light 15 had sprung bumpers like that, with scrolled ends and small overriders.
When a lot of cars had bumpers like that, a sharp bump in traffic could hook them together (like shunting an old-fashioned 0 gauge model train), and subsequent separation could prove surprisingly difficult and embarrassing... Didn't do the bumpers much good, but often prevented actual body damage.
|
Range Rovers had metal bumpers with plastic end caps after 1993 did'nt they?
Do current Defenders still have them?
|
I am getting horrible flashbacks of my Marina Mk II and the Maxi I once owned.
I agree with the original posters simple assessment.
|
|
IIRC the Renault 15/17 had fibreglass rear bumpers and they probably predate the R5 slightly
|
I also had a Morris Traveller with the bumpers largely rebuilt with Isopon - does that count?
|
|
My memory is probably playing tricks but I think my 1969 Trumph Vitesse MK II had plastic bumpers. Either that or they were coated.
|
|
As I recall, they had white rubber sections set into metal bumpers.
|
|
To be pedantic, they are "bumper covers" not bumpers, all cars have metal bumpers.
I'd like to know though what's the legality of driving with no bumper cover - exposed metal bumper? I suppose it all comes down to sharp edges? if there's no sharp edges it's legal and if there are it's illegal? correct or not?
|
>Horatio: To be pedantic, they are "bumper covers" not bumpers, all cars have metal bumpers.
The last car I had a nose-to-tail accident in was a 1991 Mazda 626. The bumpers looked OK, but inside the plastic honeycomb was shattered. There was no metal at all inside the bumpers. I'm sure that more modern cars have even less structure and weight than that one.
My 1997 Mitsubishi Galant Estate has no metal in the bumpers either, they are just plastic shapes, and even without the honeycomb in the Mazda's ones. My wife nudged a gate post with a corner of the back one recently, and it folded in on itself, but returned to its original shape in about a day.
On the other hand my Mk3 Mini has metal bumpers, and my Series 3 XJ has the U.S. 5 mph bumpers with an aluminium beam mounted on shock absorbers.
|
At least metal bumpers could be repaired with a hammer after a minor ding. Replacing the colour coded section of tissue paper on my '96 Mondeo would probably class the car as an insurance write-off.
--
|
>>Replacing the colour coded section of tissue paper on my '96 Mondeowould probably class the car as an insurance write-off.
>>
I would agree that they are "insubstantial. A replacement was about £200 ( plus fitting) last time I looked.
|
|
|
|
