GM Is Gluing Its New Cars Together to Save Weight

[hunter]

35. New cars are nothing like old cars.

With a new car a low speed "fender bender" accident in a parking lot will do little or no damage. In a higher speed accident, the passengers will be protected but the car will be totaled.

Cars are becoming like home appliances or televisions. When they're broken you throw them out and get a new one.

I drive a mid-eighties car which was probably the pinnacle of conventional automobile design, before computers, before exotic materials. The car is heavy and slow, with lots of protective steel. As a teenager one of my kids crashed it, typical teenager stuff, and yes, seatbelts do work... A similar accident would have destroyed a modern automobile, the airbags would have deployed, etc.

It cost me $350 to repair the old car, a few parts from the wrecking yard, hammering a few things back into place, and the car was good to go again.