I remember when I was a tyke, when my dad bought my mom a new 1957 Ford station wagon, a big selling point by Ford was that the newly padded front dashboard would do less damage to the faces of any children that smashed into the dashboard during a wreck than the hard dashboards of previous models.
Googling confirmed my memory:
https://www.mecum.com/lot-detail/SC0514-184424/0/1957-Ford-Country-Squire-Wagon/
Oh yes... kids in the front seats... today, it’s a no-no...
We had station wagons. Never any fear of getting our little faces smashed in on the dash. We were always rolling and sliding around in the “way back” part...