Newbie with ?? regarding bumper and bumper guard

[mellowyellow]

Hello everyone! I'm a new owner of a Black 06 SR5 4x4 V6. First time SUV and Toyota buyer and so far i'm loving the car. I love the site and picking up great tips from this forum.

I stumbled across an article on the web regarding bumpers.

The url is ----> http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/auto/20060127a1.asp

The article states that there are no standards for bumpers on SUVs compared to the minimum 5mph for cars. Does anyone know if the 4runner's bumper is purely cosmetic?

If so, this could be a great excuse for me to use to convince my wife to get a bumper guard.

Can anyone recommend highly rated bumper guards and if they know what the minimum impact (mph) it's design to protect?

Thanks.

 

[sharp4runr]

yeah the bumpers aren't designed to take a whole lot of damage so a bumper guard will definitely help in low speed bumps.

do a search for manik, westin, t&h, jaos and you'll find different kinds of guards.

 

[toybox]

It is purely cosmetic. Just open your hood and look at it from that perspective.

I don't really like add-on bumper things. I am waiting for ARB to come out with their replacement bumper (I'm going to pass out from holding my breath soon though)

 

[atomic punk]

The only SUV that I know of that has real bumpers that "protect" the vehicle from damage is the Jeep Wrangler.... and that's about to change in '07 I believe when they start making them more plastic with integrated fog lights - (puke)

 

[TiAgSport]

That sucks serious a$$. Everyone is going with the lighter more cosmetic ammentities that makes sales but jeapordizes safety. I hope to never get into an accident and don't plan on off roading either. But the wife is going to drive it so I can expect some type of damage!!! LOL! (Watch out for the infamous parking lot ventures!)

 

[Cleric]

That sucks serious a$$. Everyone is going with the lighter more cosmetic ammentities that makes sales but jeapordizes safety.

I don't believe that safety is in jeapordy here. It comes down to how much damage (in $$) is done in a low-speed collision, not how safe the passenger is.

Passenger safety is measured on SUVs and the 4Runner did well in those tests.

 

[MicaBlue03]

The 4Runner bumpers might protect some of the rest of the vehicle from damage in a low-speed impact but they'll typically get banged up in all but the smallest of impacts and they'll be expensive to replace. This would likely include some of the bangs you get from those who parallel park by feel.

I can speak from experiece about the effectiveness of the Waag bumper guards, specifically the FrontRunner. A woman in a pickup backed up into me while trying to exit a parking lot. She was going perhaps 2-3 MPH. The impact bent the FrontRunner guard and pushed its padded flange into the plastic of the 4Runner's bumper. No damage to the 4Runner, and replacing the bumper guard was only $315 for a new guard (autoanything.com) and 30 minutes with a wrench. It would have been $1-2k and a couple of days at a body shop otherwise.

 

[atomic punk]

$1-2k... eh, that's what insurance is for....

 

[AlexJet]

You have black 4Runner, so Stainless Steel Brush Guard will look nice. Check the image of my black Limited with Stainless Steel Manik on My 4Runner Project