6 ms·

Looks like in the case of minor body damage you will have to cut and flush weld patches in the body instead of bolting on a new panel like they currently do. Af

Looks like in the case of minor body damage you will have to cut and flush weld patches in the body instead of bolting on a new panel like they currently do. Aftermarket modular body panels are extremely cheap, and repairs consist of spraying a new panel and removing and installing a couple bolts and clips. This new method will make car manufacturers more money but will inevitably drive insurance and repair costs higher. This is a negative for car buyers, and the cheaper manufacturer costs won't necessarily be reflected in sales prices. There have been tons of manufacturing breakthroughs in the last few decades that have made vehicles cheaper and easier to produce and prices just keep getting higher and higher.

jackmott42 4y ago
These giga-pressed components are distinct from the body panels.
bryanlarsen 4y ago
Bent structural components are almost invariably a write-off no matter what kind of car you have.
- TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
  It depends. I did Au$10,000 to a car valued at $12,000, almost all of the damage was non-visible suspension and structural. The quoting repairer had high confidence in the repairs before starting, so the insurer went ahead. The car drove like new after the repairs, dead straight, smooth af. If even a small fraction of that damage had been on, say, the pillars it'd had been a write off.
ajross 4y ago
"Minor body damage" usually means paneling and brackets. Chassis damage to aluminum frames almost always means replacement AFAICT, which for all but the newest cars is more than the cost of replacement anyway. Remember also that modern crumple zone design deliberately sacrifices the frame as part of the collision for safety reasons. Basically, this doesn't seem right to me. If you're hit hard enough to bend the frame, your car is totalled anyway. And that's the way we want it.
- mschuster91 4y ago
  > Basically, this doesn't seem right to me. If you're hit hard enough to bend the frame, your car is totalled anyway. And that's the way we want it. It's horribly wasteful from a resource usage perspective, because now you have to throw away the rest of the car - you can't even, say, splice together a new car out of one that has a bent front and one that has a bent back. Everything in society moves towards easier and cheaper manufacture, but at the same time to dramatically lower repairability, and that's just Not Good At All.
  - ajross 4y ago
    To keep you from dying, though. This isn't a phone. If you want to make an efficiency-based argument against personal automobiles from first principles, I'm right behind you. But given that we're going to drive them around, I'd rather drive ones that kill fewer people; even if it means having to recycle a bunch of frames.
  - NotYourLawyer 4y ago
    > you can't even, say, splice together a new car out of one that has a bent front and one that has a bent back Nobody was doing this anyway.
    - HideousKojima 4y ago
      I mean I once saw an episode of Pimp My Ride where a guy was driving together a car made from 2 cars welded together, but it's definitely not standard practice
      - NotYourLawyer 4y ago
        Ok not nobody. But effectively nobody.
    - kube-system 4y ago
      There used to be shops that would "weld on a new front clip". I know someone who had insurance pay for this type of repair on a unibody car in the late 80s. Not as common in the US anymore, but if you peruse youtube autobody videos you can find shops in asia and the middle east doing these repairs on late model vehicles.
stetrain 4y ago
They aren’t casting the body panels, rather the subframe that the body panels are attached to.

jackmott42 4y ago

These giga-pressed components are distinct from the body panels.

bryanlarsen 4y ago

Bent structural components are almost invariably a write-off no matter what kind of car you have.

TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
It depends. I did Au$10,000 to a car valued at $12,000, almost all of the damage was non-visible suspension and structural. The quoting repairer had high confidence in the repairs before starting, so the insurer went ahead. The car drove like new after the repairs, dead straight, smooth af. If even a small fraction of that damage had been on, say, the pillars it'd had been a write off.

ajross 4y ago

"Minor body damage" usually means paneling and brackets. Chassis damage to aluminum frames almost always means replacement AFAICT, which for all but the newest cars is more than the cost of replacement anyway. Remember also that modern crumple zone design deliberately sacrifices the frame as part of the collision for safety reasons. Basically, this doesn't seem right to me. If you're hit hard enough to bend the frame, your car is totalled anyway. And that's the way we want it.

mschuster91 4y ago
> Basically, this doesn't seem right to me. If you're hit hard enough to bend the frame, your car is totalled anyway. And that's the way we want it. It's horribly wasteful from a resource usage perspective, because now you have to throw away the rest of the car - you can't even, say, splice together a new car out of one that has a bent front and one that has a bent back. Everything in society moves towards easier and cheaper manufacture, but at the same time to dramatically lower repairability, and that's just Not Good At All.
- ajross 4y ago
  To keep you from dying, though. This isn't a phone. If you want to make an efficiency-based argument against personal automobiles from first principles, I'm right behind you. But given that we're going to drive them around, I'd rather drive ones that kill fewer people; even if it means having to recycle a bunch of frames.
- NotYourLawyer 4y ago
  > you can't even, say, splice together a new car out of one that has a bent front and one that has a bent back Nobody was doing this anyway.
  - HideousKojima 4y ago
    I mean I once saw an episode of Pimp My Ride where a guy was driving together a car made from 2 cars welded together, but it's definitely not standard practice
    - NotYourLawyer 4y ago
      Ok not nobody. But effectively nobody.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    There used to be shops that would "weld on a new front clip". I know someone who had insurance pay for this type of repair on a unibody car in the late 80s. Not as common in the US anymore, but if you peruse youtube autobody videos you can find shops in asia and the middle east doing these repairs on late model vehicles.

stetrain 4y ago

They aren’t casting the body panels, rather the subframe that the body panels are attached to.