This exactly.

Bench seats are great for hanging out with afore mentioned dog and/or girl.
Bench seats are super shitty in any sort of side impact collision. There's nothing keeping you in place except your safety belt.

Cute girls > Safety

You need 30kmph for it to be safe, and I'm talking proper 30 kmph, not "the sign says 30 but the road is straight and I feel quite safe being two drinks in" 30 kmph

It was. As was watching the submarine races since there were multiple viable, errr, seating arrangements. A glorious time to be alive.

Came here to say the same.

Cake - Stickshifts And Safetybelts Lyrics

And dogs at least can do okay with bucket seats. I drove an Oldsmobile Silhouette ^(the Cadillac of minivans!)^ for years, and my dog was just tall enough that he could sit between the driver and passenger seats and look out the front windshield. He was at the perfect height for head scritches while I drove down the highway.

I remember when he got a bit too hefty to sit there comfortably. The automatic seat adjustment controls were on the right side of the driver seat and one time I suddenly found myself being pushed into the steering wheel at a stop light. His jelly rolls had started pressing in on the little joystick.

I miss that dog. The van was just okay.

The bucket seats have all that material and padding down each side so I don't think that point stands.

Ooh, same. And I can viscerally feel the seats and dash etc. The weight of the wheel when you sit and bounce on the springy seats trying to turn the wheel from side to side, and it's so heavy. The creaking squeak sound of the windows as you turn the handle. The great thunk of the door, with it's steel weight and loud creak. My dad owned one of these for a small time when I was a kid, because he's a car enthusiast. There were no seatbelts in the back, so us 3 kids thought it was hilarious to slide all the way to each side of the car (mostly uncontrollably, but with added emphasis) every time it turned a corner. Dad didn't own the car long. No idea why. I remember him getting quite frustrated with us, but we were having so much fun we just laughed. I think he gave up on getting through to us. But don't feel bad for poor Dad, he goes on to invest and enjoy some marvellous cars over the coming decades, including helping his son, the youngest of us all, become a race car driver, coincidentally, of an older car model.

I NEED. YOU HERE WITH ME. NOT WAY OVER IN A BUCKET SEAT.

I love CAKE, definitely my favorite band. Did you know they give out tree saplings at their concerts?

We used be a strong species. Now look at us.

My first car was a 1985 LTD that was pirpose built to scar. The seat belt, of course, but also fun little things like the controls and the metal bands in the steering wheel.

But it was also super easy to work on because the hood was the size of a small nation and you could get to anything. The big hood also gave the tires plenty of room, so it could turn on a dime. I swear you could rear-end yourself with that thing.

good girls who are cute dogs