This part used to be attached to the underside of my 1994 NG900:
It was angled down at a 45° angle, on the left side of the car, a few inches in from the back edge of the front passengers door*. It didn't protect anything obvious, and with the car fully loaded with passengers it scraped on speedbumps. There are two bolts built into the car to hold it, so it was probably meant to be there.
Yesterday I had a choice between driving into a cliff, driving into oncoming traffic, or driving over a small branch on the road... so I drove over the branch. This hit the plastic plate, tearing off one of mounting points and leaving it to drag along the road.
I removed the plate by taking off the remaining bolt, put it in the boot, and happily drove around for the rest of the day.
Now I'd like to know.. what is this thing for, and should I try to find another one to replace it? As I mentioned I can't see anything it provides proection for; a pair of cables run above it but they run the entire length of the car and nothing makes them look more vulnerabble at this particular point.
* For internaional readers: in Australia the driver is on the right side of the car

It was angled down at a 45° angle, on the left side of the car, a few inches in from the back edge of the front passengers door*. It didn't protect anything obvious, and with the car fully loaded with passengers it scraped on speedbumps. There are two bolts built into the car to hold it, so it was probably meant to be there.
Yesterday I had a choice between driving into a cliff, driving into oncoming traffic, or driving over a small branch on the road... so I drove over the branch. This hit the plastic plate, tearing off one of mounting points and leaving it to drag along the road.
I removed the plate by taking off the remaining bolt, put it in the boot, and happily drove around for the rest of the day.
Now I'd like to know.. what is this thing for, and should I try to find another one to replace it? As I mentioned I can't see anything it provides proection for; a pair of cables run above it but they run the entire length of the car and nothing makes them look more vulnerabble at this particular point.
* For internaional readers: in Australia the driver is on the right side of the car