So, as I’ve recently found out, there is bit of a strange balance issue: many car components (e. g. a kitchen unit) are easily smashed when still attached to the car, but become virtually indestructible if they happen to be knocked off the frame before being completely destroyed.
That’s an issue, because (especially in early game) you might not have tools to disassemble them properly, yet they still have a fair chance of dropping something desirable if smashed apart.
For example: smashed kitchen unit can get you a pot. But if it gets detached from the frame, suddenly you can’t get the pot (I’ve tried smashing the thing, smashing WITH the thing: nothing works).