adding immensely to the cost and complexity of a car, while perhaps not protecting occupants to a much greater degree.

If I could choose the vehicle to be in during an accident, I'd rather be in a W123 wearing my seatbelt in almost any encounter with fate. These cars were designed to protect BOTH the occupants AND the vehicle...bumpers you could bump, collision panels that could be replaced after a collision. A "safety cage" to absorb energy (an historical note...this feature gos back to the pontons).

A large amount of safety equipment on modern cars is what I would possibly term "gratuitous." It adds immensely to purchase price, and to the cost of repairs...on a macabre note, it may also cost insurers because victims involved in an accident which might have been fatal (and thus subject of a one-time death payment) now have medical, surgical, and rehabilitative costs running to many multiples of what would have otherwise been paid if the occupant had been declared dead on the scene.

Should next year's models be equipped with lifeboats in case the cars go off a bridge into a river? IS there a point where a car is "too safe" to make sense?