I was looking at that "ouch!!" thread and noticed that the US models dont have side impact bars fitted. Usually if a car is smacked on the side, the sheetmetal bends, but you can usually see a line across the door indicating the side impact bar stopping the force. A good thing to note is that you do have that "you can stop here" peice of steel running along at the front of the car. Which is probably why most of the crash pictures, none of the damage goes into the passenger cell.

Can anyone confirm if you do/do not have side impact bars? Side impact bars are fitted to Aus models as part of ADR's.

Toan.

 

Side impact bars were fitted in 1995. The SC in that ouch thread is a '92-'94 (cross bar in bumper section).

good eye!

 

I have a 1992 sc400

I have side impact bars. You can see them when you take off the door panels.

I could be mistaking them for something else though. What do they look like? Mine look like... piping that is 1.3inches in diameter. Painted the same colour as the car.

 

I asked about this once and they said that all they did on the later model was change the way it was mounted to meet Federal regulations. The side impact beams on the older gen are supposed to be just as effective, the newer design is just to satisfy the government.