My favorite genre, by far.
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I miss you automatic bucklers. RIP.
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I miss you automatic bucklers. RIP.
TSMT
What vehicle did it best?
I felt Ford Escorts were pretty slick -
I miss you automatic bucklers. RIP.
Pls help if you know why these aren't around anymore--I need to know
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I miss you automatic bucklers. RIP.
If you saw the ones on my mom's 94 Nissan Sentra, you'd see they're totally busted now, and the rails are only made of plastic, which long ago dryrotted and now the guide cables are just randomly hanging out and neither side works anymore.
Hell, even when they were brand spanking new, do you really trust your life to seatbelts only held in place by fucking plastic tracks?
Plus you still gotta manually latch the lower lap belt, which most people totally forget even exist when the shoulder belt is automatic.
That's like the most dangerous form of seatbelt to have ever been made. Thankfully that shit rightfully died out, the OG 3 point seatbelt invented by Volvo is by far the best.
If you want photos of my mom's damaged seatbelts to better understand, just message me back and I'll see about getting and sharing a photo tomorrow or soon. It's fucked.
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I miss you automatic bucklers. RIP.
This is funny because its from an article that uses the same picture why they are tereible...
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/automatic-seat-belt-terrible-idea/ -
Pls help if you know why these aren't around anymore--I need to know
They were actually more unsafe because only the part across your torso was automated and you still had to manually buckle the lap belt. People generally didn’t do that and got injured badly, a standard 3 point plus airbag is much safer. Then add in the driver side door airbag and the system is doooooomed
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They were actually more unsafe because only the part across your torso was automated and you still had to manually buckle the lap belt. People generally didn’t do that and got injured badly, a standard 3 point plus airbag is much safer. Then add in the driver side door airbag and the system is doooooomed
Lol wait, these had lapbelts with them? Uhhh, yeah glad I didn't get in any wrecks with it. Oops...
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This is funny because its from an article that uses the same picture why they are tereible...
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/automatic-seat-belt-terrible-idea/By even the late 90s? Yeah, they were a REALLY REALLY REALLY stupid idea.
But understand that in the 70s and 80s it was still very socially acceptable to refuse to wear a seatbelt with many outright claiming it was more dangerous because you would be trapped in a burning car instead of thrown clear. Yes, boomers were always dumbfucks.
But, by those standards? Something is better than nothing and a system that forces people to at least be partially restrained was a good idea. It was eventually replaced with education (LOTS of tv shows had Very Special Episodes about why you wear your fucking seatbelt) and the nag chime (... that people now bypass by buying metal clips to insert into the buckle).
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TSMT
What vehicle did it best?
I felt Ford Escorts were pretty slickMy first car was a 1989 ford escort hatchback and I miss it terribly. They’re fairly difficult to find now thanks to the stupid cash for clunkers program that laundered hundreds millions into the auto industry and wasted tens of millions of perfectly fine cars so that people could get into consumer debt and waste a shitload of resources getting into a modern suv that is barely more efficient in most cases (1989 ford escort hatchback got 25mpg on average, in line with many modern boat cars, and doesn’t destroy pedestrians or take up 8 city blocks to park)
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I miss you automatic bucklers. RIP.
Our first new car in the 90s had fixed ones of these. No motorized track, so I guess that's good from the safety/strength point of view. Basically you'd have to get in while avoiding the stretched belt and then shut the door. Maybe it was a first attempt and the track ones were to fix how cumbersome it was. The good news, we could detach it from the mount at the top, and that's exactly how we'd do it - get in the car, then buckle the top first, then the lap belt in a two step motion.
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My first car was a 1989 ford escort hatchback and I miss it terribly. They’re fairly difficult to find now thanks to the stupid cash for clunkers program that laundered hundreds millions into the auto industry and wasted tens of millions of perfectly fine cars so that people could get into consumer debt and waste a shitload of resources getting into a modern suv that is barely more efficient in most cases (1989 ford escort hatchback got 25mpg on average, in line with many modern boat cars, and doesn’t destroy pedestrians or take up 8 city blocks to park)
That mpg is stellar, but I even felt they drove/handled quite well too. So much nostalgia with my first 94 model
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That mpg is stellar, but I even felt they drove/handled quite well too. So much nostalgia with my first 94 model
It made me love small cars forever. Even now I am a fairly large person at 189cm but I drive a Smart Fortwo. They just are far more nimble and responsive, like a go kart. Whenever I drive a friend or family’s suv or truck it’s like “how do you do this? This is like piloting a boat”
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I miss you automatic bucklers. RIP.
They did this because laws required an automated restraint, and these were cheaper to install then airbags.
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It made me love small cars forever. Even now I am a fairly large person at 189cm but I drive a Smart Fortwo. They just are far more nimble and responsive, like a go kart. Whenever I drive a friend or family’s suv or truck it’s like “how do you do this? This is like piloting a boat”
I'll raise you a modern 3/4 ton truck, it handles like a shipping container, and barely fits anywhere. I love that truck, but if it wasn't for work, I'd opt for a sedan.
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Lol wait, these had lapbelts with them? Uhhh, yeah glad I didn't get in any wrecks with it. Oops...
wrote last edited by [email protected]Yep. I didn't even know this for over a decade on my mom's 94 Nissan Sentra. Apparently the lap belts had retracted underneath the rear floor mats. Mom didn't know either.
I had always assumed the buckles for those were meant for some odd central child safety seat add-on, but nope, they were for the totally hidden lap belts.
️I didn't find out until a previous related online thread only last year, which sent me on the hunt for the hidden lap belts, which I could have previously swore didn't even exist.
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I miss you automatic bucklers. RIP.
I recently got one of the cars pictured. These belts are junk but it sure was cool.
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If you saw the ones on my mom's 94 Nissan Sentra, you'd see they're totally busted now, and the rails are only made of plastic, which long ago dryrotted and now the guide cables are just randomly hanging out and neither side works anymore.
Hell, even when they were brand spanking new, do you really trust your life to seatbelts only held in place by fucking plastic tracks?
Plus you still gotta manually latch the lower lap belt, which most people totally forget even exist when the shoulder belt is automatic.
That's like the most dangerous form of seatbelt to have ever been made. Thankfully that shit rightfully died out, the OG 3 point seatbelt invented by Volvo is by far the best.
If you want photos of my mom's damaged seatbelts to better understand, just message me back and I'll see about getting and sharing a photo tomorrow or soon. It's fucked.
I don’t even wear my seat belt most of the time anymore. Run it
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I don’t even wear my seat belt most of the time anymore. Run it
Seatbelts are highly recommended, for obvious safety reasons that practically everyone understands and agrees with.
Unfortunately, in the condition my mom's car is now in, the seatbelts no longer function and aren't even usable anymore. If it counts for anything though, she barely even drives it maybe once or twice a month right around the corner to occasionally get a few groceries and her medicine and local stuff.
She almost never puts it on the highway anymore, unless absolutely necessary. She gets most of her groceries and products delivered anymore.
Usually I'd say there's absolutely no excuse to not wear seatbelts, but in her case it's a malfunction of a worn out piss poor design, she only drives it when necessary.
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I don’t even wear my seat belt most of the time anymore. Run it
My least favorite word as a first responder: "ejected."
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I miss you automatic bucklers. RIP.
My brother's old ass Mazda had these. I thought it was a neat idea, but obviously flawed, even for the time they were new.
Side thought: One thing that I have been thinking about from time to time recently is how the culture war on seatbelts was finally and definitively won. You don't hear people complaining on television anymore about how their freedom is being infringed by having to spend 3 extra seconds to buckle a seatbelt. I think kids today would be blown away with how much people argued about this back in the 90's. It was no joke the dumbest shit that people argued about at the office watercooler day in and day out for years.
We really did have it good back then when the worst political bile we could muster was grumbling about whether or not seatbelts should be required to be worn while in vehicles. Meanwhile, fast forward to the modern day and we are seriously debating with each other whether or not certain people should have rights...
