Why Bull Bars Vanished From American Showrooms

Front-mounted bull bars, once a familiar option on trucks and SUVs sold in the United States, have all but disappeared from domestic order sheets. The reason traces to two shifts in vehicle design: the spread of front-facing sensors used for collision warning and automatic braking, and tightened pedestrian-safety standards that the rigid metal bars complicate. Automakers building for the American market have largely engineered the option out rather than around those requirements. In Australia, where the same equipment remains a common factory-installed choice, no such shift has occurred, underscoring how differing regulatory priorities can steer the same vehicle platform toward very different showroom options on opposite sides of the Pacific.

With reporting from The Drive.