> however for light crashes, your hunk of 50's-70's metal will often end up with significantly less damage
I don't get your point - yes they have less damage, because they're not soaking up the energy. That's like saying "a motorcycle helmet made of solid steel won't damage as easily as a modern one". Sure, but that's exactly the point of a modern helmet
I think the point is that, practically speaking, there is no such thing as a "fender-bender" with modern cars. Even very low-speed collisions typically involve lots of plastic going "crunch". Instead of your fender being a little bent, you now have dozens of pieces of plastic paneling that have to be replaced.
Between cars, no. But a pretty significant amount of the traffic in my area is actually just trucks and full-size SUVs. Twice I've had someone hit the hitch receiver on my truck and damage their vehicle without any damage to my vehicle.
I don't get your point - yes they have less damage, because they're not soaking up the energy. That's like saying "a motorcycle helmet made of solid steel won't damage as easily as a modern one". Sure, but that's exactly the point of a modern helmet