Because as with most car designs back in the day safety was a secondary consideration (if at all) to style. Firstly because these types of seats provide absolutely no stability so everyone goes sliding all over the place the moment anyone goes around the corner at speed, and secondly because there are no actual independent seats it encourages everyone to bunch up, even if there’s only actually enough seat belts for two people.
These problems are mitigated if you slow down although they’re still there.
Not a car expert, but i presume that actual seats provide more stability when turning/ more safety when having an accident. Both of which gets worse when speed increases.
Modern cars bend and flex during a crash, and they do it in such a way to keep occupants safer. Bench seats can’t do that as well. They also don’t work as well with modern air bags and seatbelts, and they often lack headrests.
Without a headrest a relatively low speed impact basically snaps your neck and whips your head into the dashboard.
You want your seat to basically hug you and lock you into place. There’s a reason racecar seats look like they do.
had an 83 f100. the first time I took a turn too fast I got thrown into the passenger seat.
I’m lucky it was a back road and I had legs long enough to still press the brake enough to slow down enough to get back into the driver seat and carry on.
wasn’t long after that and I got a newer truck with bucket seats.
sure, benches were fun and easy to fucksleep on but the safety trade off made it an easy choice to make.
Yeah I had a manual steering car before, it sucks. I had a wrist cast and almost at the end of the cast time I was turning the steering and felt the bone crack again.
Car accidents. All collision types become more likely as speed increases, and injuries increase with that - not chance of injury, total injuries. Bench seats were abandoned for bucket seats because bench seats are objectively more deadly when analyzing car crashes.
You need to limit the speed a vehicle can go if you’re going to make unsafe designs acceptable again, otherwise you’re just gambling with lives for fun cabin interiors.
forgive me, but i have to ask. how does speed affect the type of seat that is used?
Because as with most car designs back in the day safety was a secondary consideration (if at all) to style. Firstly because these types of seats provide absolutely no stability so everyone goes sliding all over the place the moment anyone goes around the corner at speed, and secondly because there are no actual independent seats it encourages everyone to bunch up, even if there’s only actually enough seat belts for two people.
These problems are mitigated if you slow down although they’re still there.
Not a car expert, but i presume that actual seats provide more stability when turning/ more safety when having an accident. Both of which gets worse when speed increases.
that was my first thought too, but i dont recall ever taking corners that sharp at 60 or 50 mph.
edit - oop i missed the part you said better safety for crashes, that sounds reasonable, and im curious about how its more safe.
Modern cars bend and flex during a crash, and they do it in such a way to keep occupants safer. Bench seats can’t do that as well. They also don’t work as well with modern air bags and seatbelts, and they often lack headrests.
Without a headrest a relatively low speed impact basically snaps your neck and whips your head into the dashboard.
You want your seat to basically hug you and lock you into place. There’s a reason racecar seats look like they do.
had an 83 f100. the first time I took a turn too fast I got thrown into the passenger seat.
I’m lucky it was a back road and I had legs long enough to still press the brake enough to slow down enough to get back into the driver seat and carry on.
wasn’t long after that and I got a newer truck with bucket seats.
sure, benches were fun and easy to
fucksleep on but the safety trade off made it an easy choice to make.No seat belts?
I’m sure it had one, once.
keep in mind this was an f100. it had lights, wheels, a windshield, and a steering wheel. I was lucky it had a radio and heat. zero power steering.
so when you turned, you had to put everything into the turn. that day I just didn’t have enough for the turn and to stay seated.
Yeah I had a manual steering car before, it sucks. I had a wrist cast and almost at the end of the cast time I was turning the steering and felt the bone crack again.
Airbags and shoulder harness seat belts are a lot easier to place with bucket seats.
that makes sense
Car accidents. All collision types become more likely as speed increases, and injuries increase with that - not chance of injury, total injuries. Bench seats were abandoned for bucket seats because bench seats are objectively more deadly when analyzing car crashes.
You need to limit the speed a vehicle can go if you’re going to make unsafe designs acceptable again, otherwise you’re just gambling with lives for fun cabin interiors.