New cars are safer, but they sure sustain a lot more damage in even a small impact. (they are meant to crush and absorb impact)
Sometimes I think it would be nice if cars still had bumper shocks instead of crushable plastic. My first car took 15+ MPH impact to the rear bumper with no damage. The same impact would have nearly totaled almost any modern car.
My 1965 Dodge Dart was my first car with seat belts and crash padding on the dash. But without a shoulder harness and collapsible steering wheel the 2 door hardtop was still a very dangerous car to crash in. The bucket seats did not even have locking backs; during a fast stop the empty passenger seat back would fly forward! The “deluxe” wheeldisks had those nasty “Ben Hur war chariot” spinners, very hard on pedestrians.
What has been added since that time would fill a whole page.