Here’s a TL;DR list thingy: Cars should take damage similarly to GTA and effects the car’s performance, seat belts and airbags to protect the occupants that need to be repaired/replaced, cars shouldn’t explode, but rather catch fire, craftable, but fixed armor for cars, all parts of a car take damage and leaning in cars.
Dynamic car damage similar to Grand Theft Auto - Cars should take damage when colliding into things like in GTA and this damage should affect the performance of the car if too much damage is taken.
Airbags and seat belts- obviously used to protect the occupants from collisions and both high and low speeds. Occupants should be ejected from a car if there are no seat belts present or if they took it off. At higher speed crashes players should take damage, break bones, bleed and/or die if there are no seat belts and/or airbags present. Airbags must replaced after each use and kits to replace both seat belts and airbags can be found at mechanic locations. They can be shot out like tires if the insides on the car are shot (steering wheel & passenger-side dashboard, rear seat occupants are protected by seat belts and front seats.)
Cars realistically don’t explode unless they have an explosive in them. They should just catch fire and eventually spread to the inside of the car and harm the occupants and melt the tires. This fire eventually extinguishes, whether it be by rain, naturally goes out due to a lack of fuel to burn off of or gets put out by a player (fire extinguisher pls.) This makes heavily damaged cars salvageable, but most, if not all parts must be replaced.
Rather than being able to place plating and such like you can in 3.x, armor should be crafted and have fixed points where they can be attached to prevent invincible death machine sedans being created. These armor plates have different tiers based off the material they’re made from. Other things like ram bars, roll cages and total chassis upgrades should also be available to increase the overall durability of the car.
As discussed in above suggestions, most car parts should have a durability and be able to be repaired. While some parts need to be kept in a high condition like the engine, breaks and transmission, other parts like head/taillights and windows don’t need to be replaced/repaired often or at all if they break.
Leaning in cars- You should be able to lean forward in cars to avoid getting shot and lean out the windows to get a better view to shoot at people, look around, etc.
Tell me what you think and how to improve these suggestions.