[ragitty]

Originally bumpers were there to protect the car rather than deflect or protect pedestrians on impact, though, of course, modern cars certainly from the 80s on, have bumpers designed to do both.

The example of the Mini - though could apply to any car up to the 80s - hardly pedestrian friendly bumpers! Generally shin level and all of chrome. Thin and narrow, sometimes tapering to an (admittedly) rounded off area, they would do much damage to legs etc unlike today's deformable, deep and wide bumpers which spread an impact over a greater area, reducing damage to the car they are attached to, other vehicles and humans. Compare most cars' steel bumpers of the day to those huge great plastic/rubber jobs first introduced by Volvo, pioneers don't forget in road safety.

I don't know the position of MOT standards regarding bumpers, but given that bumpers do now perform that dual role of pedestrian and vehicle protection, I would imagine they are part of the MOT. Worth bearing in mind even if not.

I think that the answer is, as long as there is no rusting sharp pretruding brackets etc then as long as the vehice has a registration plate, it is ok.