It's hard to quote any ONE post here... you're partly revisiting a subject that was already taken to the Devs, and the devs responded to the wishes of what seemed to be the majority. I think some of us here are also trying to make an important clarification, because we sense you're mixing up two different descriptions:

Around Patch 1.3 there was an effect called "Armour Burn". When your vehicle reaches a "low HP" threshold, alarms sounded, fire broke out, and unless you parked your vehicle in the next few seconds and hit the fire with every repper mod and hand repair unit you had, THE EFFECT 'BURNED' YOUR REMAINING HP TO ZERO (sort of what a "real" fire would do to your vehicle's systems and chasis).
I believe there was a version of "armour burn" for the LAVs and HAVs too, I don't recall, but "armour burn" was not considered fair, especially to DS drivers who clearly need more than a few seconds to get themselves parked. Though I loved the danger that armour-burn created, it was removed a couple of months ago, and I don't think most players ever want it to return.

The only effect you're experiencing now is a "cabin fire" (I don't think it's got an official term yet), and you don't lose your vehicle. It's a "LOW-HP" animation, not zero-hp. During a fire you can still run the controls (yes DS too), but I have noticed some drivers abandon the ship and never look back (maybe thinking it's still the old armour burn).

IF your DS or other vehicle loses all control from a hit, that's ZERO-HP (different from low-hp) At ZERO-HP, your HAV/ LAV becomes a dead mass of (nano-matter? LOL) with maximum 3 casualties instantly. When your zer-hp DS rolls over and augers, since there could be max 7 casualties, a DS driver could argue that giving them some chance to jump out is a fair and considerate counterbalance to the "mass-slaughter opportunity".

You still get to move and fight with your DROPSUIT at ZERO-HP, since zero-hp to your dropsuit means nothing to your clone body--it's a "passenger" in a (currently nano-dead? LOL) suit. Organically, you're still in the game!

So if you're proposing that ANY passenger in his vehicle have a 3-second window to jump out of his ZERO-HP vehicle (not just DS passengers), that's a cool argument.
If you're proposing that a ZERO-HP vehicle be allowed to continue putting up a fight like a merc with a zero-hp dropsuit, I think you'll be nerfing one of the "damage devices" (like the cabin-fire and earlier armour-burn) that CCP definitely seems committed to keeping in the game.


Last note of interest: You can drive anywhere with your cabin on fire---I just don't think you can get the RDV to recall it---your vehicle is stuck that way till the smoke draws the enemy's interest, or a buddy with a hand-repper puts the fire out for you.