- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
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It will reduce costs for toyota.
I doubt the consumers will see any savings.
C level executives will have big fat bonuses tho
All according to kaikaku
Corporate execs: How can we force people into even more debt so we can have even more money than we’ll ever need or spend?
Great, now we have disposable automobiles.
They already are disposable I got news for you.
I’m pretty sure cars are some of the most reused, repaired, and recycled products we have.
The vehicles will be much cheaper to make. A shame costs savings will leave out the consumer and also cause all vehicle insurance rates to go way up.
What will EU do?
Coz they gptta do something at some point.
Help the consumer, cause somebody got to.
This bit does not ring true:
Such a scenario would be to Toyota’s benefit however, as an unrepairable car will still need replacement—potentially with a new car. Repairability is something the automotive industry has directly combated in recent years, with a Toyota-backed industry group sponsoring a scare campaign to (unsuccessfully) undermine a right-to-repair bill. Car companies make their money from selling new cars, not keeping old ones on the road. If cast bodies serve that end better than those stitched together, it’d be no surprise to see them become the industry standard.
Car companies need their cars to hold their value secondhand so that the people who buy their new cars can afford to replace them more often. The right to repair stuff is about forcing people to use their dealerships for repairs.
No idea what Toyota’s plan is for body repairs but destroying their second-hand market is probably not a part of it.
It’s all about those short term profits baby! 😎
Late stage capitalism for the win
Also, don’t car manufacturers have ridiculous margins on original spare parts? I thought they made a lot of money on those over the pretty long lifetime of the vehicles.
the value of a car depreciates by 50% when you drive it off the lot
Not Toyotas
I wish that was actually true as an exclusively used car buyer.
Have you shopped for used cars recently?
And?
Yeah, I mean the main advantages for Toyota are clear and massive. Huge cuts in assembly time and factory floor space. Any effect on the second hand market is likely not intended, but also almost certainly worth the savings made, as far as they’re concerned.
Has anyone come up with a guess on the cost of swapping out an entire cast body section vs replacing or refurbishing the parts that would be there without the cast?
I think point is without the cast body section you could just replace broken parts which may be significantly less. In practice though I don’t think it matters that much. Small accidents hopefully don’t damage the frame and if they do it’s often a bit dubious repairing it.
Yeah, I think once you get to the point where the car needs the frame worked on, it’s probably going to get scrapped whether it has a cast frame or not.
people have repaired frames for a long time.
… on a 1st world country.
we definetly do those kinds of repairs over here
What this seems like is it would replace things that are normally spot welded or glued together, things I can think off the top of my head that are like this are the front radiator support and strut towers in various cars. When these items are bent or rusted you can usually buy these peices. See skyline r34 strut tower rust issues. On this new proposed design your options would be to replace the whole front or rear third of your car, or precision cutting and welding a piece in, which may be inaccessable because of the casting design.
Now there I can see how this design might make more problems than it solves. Bending the mounts of different parts might total the car.
Welding a casting is a lot more dubious even if you can access it easily. If the original material was welded together chances are it can be rewelded without much issue. Most successfull welds in cast material I’ve seen have been in compression, it tends to split around the weld when you put it under tension.
Except for trucks
Hmm, yes. Some trucks with broken or bent frames get patched up and driven.
Probably because trucks are industrial vehicles built to be driven millions of km*, and therefore are a much bigger investment, so the repair is more often “worth it” than for personal vehicles.
Also, one truck can have the cargo capacity of many cargo vans, and one bus in pendular movement has the capacity of many personal cars, so each truck/bus repair will have a greater impact.
*At least, that’s the case for buses, according to a schoolbus driver when I was a kid.
This is for cars and small SUVs. The trucks still have frames. The cars and small SUVs are already unibodies. Just not multi-segmented unibodies. The two differences are that its multi-segmented, and the metal is cast, instead of forged in a stamping press.
The problem is that you’d have to pretty much disassemble half the vehicle to replace a cast part, and that will be thousands extra in labor.
Considering that the cast part is practically half the vehicle, I wonder if it is easier to change out the cast vs several frame parts.
My guess is increase part cost but reduce repair labor. Similar to replacing transmission or engine today. Not worth it for a shop to usually do the repairs them selves but replace the whole unit and send off to a remanufacturing plant
The frame is a much smaller portion of the vehicle than these cast parts.
Once a frame is damaged the vehicle often gets totalled out because it would be so much to replace, basically disassemble the vehicle or try to repair the frame and have poor safety risks from then on.
These casts are a lot more than where a frame is. Damage to the casts will happen from accidents that never would have damaged a normal frame.
Not on a unibody.
Article does not have the numbers, and I filled in DDGing the Numbers. How many cars have their frames repaired each year?
My anecdotal experience indicates very few car frames are repaired each year, though not zero.
The expense of repairing frame damage is already really high and, in my personal experience with a couple cars that had frame damage from being hit, the insurance counts it as a total loss every time. I don’t suspect the average car owner is going to repair that kind of damage when it would be cheaper to just replace the entire vehicle. An enthusiast or someone with a sentimental bond with it, and has the money for it, might choose to repair it tho.
Impossible seems a bit dramatic. Cost prohibitive is more better
If it is cost prohibitive for a majority, then it’s pretty damn near impossible.
So spaceflight is impossible?
Space flight companies aren’t trying to sell their rockets to the average consumer.
Because they can’t afford it? You think they wouldn’t try if it wasn’t cost prohibitive?
I mean Blue origin is already trying
Enshitification has infected Toyota. What a shame.
Just another brand I can start avoiding.
These cast bodies will be used in the 2026 EV’s, so not really a massive issue yet. Wait and see…
Good luck getting comprehensive car insurance.
bruh
Manufacturers are joining the era of disposable cars.
Consumers are joining the era of disposing of cars.
Ironically cars are far more reliable now than they were at any point in the past.
I agree, I think the real problem is the cost to maintain one and the economics around it. For too long the expectation was to put as little money as possible into maintaining it and getting a new one some years later. We need to stop making them the massive status symbols they’ve become.
Many consumers treat their cars as disposable already
I’ll be honest, they are?
There is no affordable car today that you can make any money today that you need to use. They require money in order to maintain it well enough to use.
Tires are expensive. Gas is expensive. You’ve got filters and oils and fluids to replace, and headlamps. Without the required disposables, a car is basically useless.
A house without running water, or power, or natural gas, or a furnace filter, or water softener, or lightbulbs, or toilet paper, etc. still provides shelter without all of those things.
A car gets you from point a to point b until it doesn’t. At that point it’s disposed of.
Get an EV. The only expense is tires. I’m hoping my ev can last the life of the battery, which is supposed to be around 22 years.
My next vehicle will be. no reason to have a gas anything. Unfortunately I’m in the middle of a divorce, so I have no idea how long it will be before I can make any positive changes. Fuck I don’t even know where I’ll be living in 8 months.
Won’t be a problem because more and more people don’t want a car.
Car manufacturers know this and that’s why they are focusing on self-driving cars. Taxis will be replaced by robo-taxis owned by manufacturers and private firms.
Within 20 years, will be like a luxury like owning a horse
robo taxis can’t respond to accidents and emergencies so its likely they won’t be affordable to operate for some time.
Robo taxis or not, kids don’t care to get their license.
Reject modernity, revert to Swedish brick car.
I can replace every part of my self built ebike with hand tools and how to videos. fuck cars
If you live anywhere in the US that isn’t a big coastal city, this isn’t an option.
Cars are essential where I’m from, an e bike will get you killed. But good for you
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Pretty sure I couldn’t get it any better in terms of country.
We need protected bike lanes everywhere
Difficult to realize. I’m from the Netherlands… one of the most bike friendly countries in the world. Even here that won’t happen.
Got any special tips or suggested guides on building an ebike diy??
I’m still building it, but be prepared to buy a lot of tools and parts if you don’t have experience already. I’m waiting on some electrical connectors to connect the controller and battery, and I had to get a metal file to file down the front dropout because it was ever so slightly too small to fit the motor on.
Idk who tf is downvoting you for this, lemmy is weird as hell sometimes. Sounds like a fun project! How long has it been taking you?
it reads 5/0 up/down on my end.
it’s been fun. I’ve been working on the conversion since late last month. my work schedule sucks so I don’t have that much time to spend on it day-to-day. a lot of the time’s also spend working, finding out I need a part/tool I don’t have, waiting for delivery, getting another because this one I got is the wrong size, etc. which introduces tedium. if I’m lucky it’ll be complete soon.
Guess I won’t be sticking with Toyota when my Prius finally craps out. Too bad. It’s a great car.
