Who's the idiot that deleted rear bumpers on new cars??
More and more new cars are popping up on the streets that are missing their rear bumpers. I'm not grasping what the purpose of this is. Is safety something that the manufacturers have phased out?
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Safety been phased out? You've got to be joking.
Just because those vehicles don't have what appears to be your definition of a "bumper" doesn't mean that they haven't passed all of the safety standards (including crash tests!!!) that are required for modern cars.
As far as cost to fix them, well, that's another matter entirely. It doesn't help that some of the vehicles you posted are in the $100k range to purchase. That Grand Wagoneer STARTS in the high $80k range. So yeah, it's gonna be expensive to fix.
I can't find it, but there's a rear crash test video on a new American SUV that was totalled after a 5mph rear hit...
Again, being "totaled" has NOTHING to do with safety. That's strictly a cost/value analysis by an insurance company.
Many cars are "totaled" after relatively minor accidents because of the cost of repair, not because their occupants were anything other than perfectly safe. I see accidents all the time where the car is totaled and the occupants are 100% unhurt. Modern cars have crumple zones, air bags, parts intended to absorb impacts and energy. They do their job extremely well, and the result is that part has to be replaced, and the occupant is just fine.
And that Rivian has a rear bumper, which disproves your original point. And again, "cost to fix" doesn't mean "not safe". In fact, the cost to repair those vehicles probably follows, at least in part, the safety requirements they have to meet. With of course the rising costs of production, materials, etc.
Here's the other thing- If you replaced that Rivian in that accident with a 1968 Charger, what do you think the cost of
that repair would be? Because a late '60's to '70's mopar in that same collision would have folded up its rear frame rails. So, now price out straightening the frame on a rack, replacing the rear frame rails, quarter panel, trunk, tail panel, tail lights, bumper, floor pans etc, and then a full repaint. If you do that for a '68 Charger and pay someone to do the work I bet you're gonna be in the same ballpark as that $42k Rivian repair.