I figured that the idea behind bumpers was to prevent or minimize damage to person and property during collisions. Or, as Robert Frost put it, “Good fences make good neighbors.” The federal government issued standards some years ago requiring that car bumpers match in height and are able withstand impacts of a couple of miles an hour with limited damage. I figured the same would be so for SUVs and pickups. Well, I was really wrong in that idea. A short search of the Web showed that there are NO regulations for bumpers on such vehicles.(See www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/
bumper_tests.html.) The manufacturer is free to put the bumper at any height, to make it out of any material whatever, or to have no bumper at all.As a result these behemoths may be harder on one another than on passenger cars. The sporty-looking protruding spare tires on the backs of some SUVs are a particular menace. A tail ender on one of these transmits the force to the tailgate of the struck SUV and the grille of the striking SUV with expensive consequences.
I just did a quick survey of SUV and pickup bumper heights in a local parking garage and found neither rhyme nor reason. Some bumpers match up well with cars, and others, particularly on big new pickups sit way up in the air.
I am generally opposed to the “nanny state,” but here make an exception. It seems a proper function of government to make sure that bumpers match.
So writes Ken Russell, MIT professor emeritus of Metallurgy and Nuclear Engineering, in “The Menace Behind Mismatched Bumpers.”