They don't make 'em like they used to.

I just want to say that your truck is very badass and if I had to slide off a mountainside at 50mph that's the vehicle I'd want to be riding in. But honestly now - imagine you're spending a billion dollars on a factory that builds trucks. To stay in business for any amount of time, you will need to sell these trucks to consumers at a profit. Are you really going to put a heavy roll cage and 5 point harnesses in every one? That's going to add manucturing cost which will increase the bottom line your customer has to pay. It will add weight to the vehicle, which will lower their gas mileage. 5 point harnesses take more time to put on and take off and it's hard enough getting people to use their damn seatbelts as it is. I doubt it takes you much time at all to buckle up your harness and I agree they're safer, but there's still a lot of people out there that can't be bothered to spend 2 seconds putting on their normal seatbelt, despite the fact that it gives them 90% better odds of walking away from a bad crash.

The other manufacturers will run you out of business because their vehicles will get better mileage, have more shiny objects at the same price point, and they'll be more comfortable and convenient to operate. That's reason enough to have normal seatbelts, crumple zones, and airbags without even getting into government safety requirements and EPA mandated fuel economies. There just isn't a market for your demographic on the scales the big manufacturers operate in. Look at Consumer Reports - people don't care about stuff like that. Solid trucks get panned because the brakes felt mushy or the ride wasn't smooth enough. I think that's a stupid way to shop for a truck but that's how people are.

As far as safety goes, I don't doubt you've seen some awful things but "data" is not the plural form of "anecdote". For every one of those accident scenes that keeps a guy up at night, how many smashed cars at junkyards have people pointing and marveling that all their occupants survived? If modern designs are less safe, then how do you explain this data?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

I think the most useful metric is the 4th column - "fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles travelled". That goes a long ways to equalize changes in population and driving habits (more cars/household, more miles/persion, average driver age, etc) over the years. It's currently half what it was in 1988 and a quarter what it was in 1970. Something certainly changed in that time period, and I doubt it was the skill of the average driver.

 

I'm assuming he's the author, the one holding the bumper. He really misses the mark. What is he trying to prove by holding a bumper? Is he implying that the tacoma and current cars are less safe because they have fiberglass/plastic bumpers? The part he is holding is pure cosmetic and just a damn cover, what a clown.

 

X2. I know where some Silver flares are. The bumper is all I need.