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points by OptionOfT 2 days ago | 0 comments
I think small accidents == large bills is caused by the amount of sensors and crumple zones in cars.

Layered on top of that is the massively increased cost of parts and labor to install the parts and paint them. And cars aren't really made to be taken apart easily.

Then there is the issue of availability of parts, especially in newer cars.

All of that makes it so that there are a 100+ cars outside the body-shop I frequently pass by. Because of the speed (or slowness) of the pipeline, body-shops need to be a certain size. Then insurance tries to squeeze them, and people don't get paid enough for the work they actually do.

So that's why your repaired bumper is 2 tints darker than your body. No-one has the time to properly blend the paints.

[–] orthogonal_cube 2 days ago
> And cars aren't really made to be taken apart easily.

This is a major contributor for specific models. I was listening to my brother complain about a vehicle that rolled into their shop lately and how the engineers really didn’t think about how difficult it would be for technicians to service things. Some parts are fairly inexpensive and easy to replace but you have to remove the engine or transmission in order to get enough clearance to swap out the part!

[–] scheme271 2 days ago
It's there even for parts that require regular replacement. For example, VW GTIs have required removing the bumper and taking a decent amount of stuff off the car in order to replace the headlights. This has been the case since at least 2007. Granted with LED headlights this isn't as much of an issue but prior generations had xenon headlights which required replacement periodically.
[–] ssl-3 2 days ago
Same on my 14-year-old Honda van. The sane way to replace the HID bulbs (or the ballast or the ignitor, because HID things) is to remove the headlight housings, and the first step of doing that is removing the front bumper cover. It's not completely awful, but it's not exactly awesome either.

The less-sane way to replace just-the-bulb is from the top. It seems like it should be faster, and it sure does look easier, but it's a blind one-handed process with little fiddly bits to manipulate. There's not enough room to add a reasonably-stout glove to that hand, and there wouldn't be enough dexterity and tactile sense if there were. Consequently, there will be blood. I'm told that it's a lot more practical to swap a bulb in-situ with the halogen housings (as those don't have as much depth to them as the ones for HID), but my Honda is not so-endowed.

Part of this is because, AFAICT, the headlight assemblies are structural. They tie into several other assemblies and help hold the front of the vehicle together.

(A pedestrian Buick or Chevrolet from ~20 years ago is very different: To remove a headlight assembly, just lift up on a couple of heavy nylon straps and the whole shebang basically just falls out. It takes seconds. Reinstallation is very nearly as quick.)

[–] bigfatkitten 2 days ago
That’s not a new thing.

I replaced the heater core on a 1987 Ford XF Falcon. In hindsight, it would’ve been easier to pull the motor out and cut myself an access panel in the firewall than it was to disassemble and reassemble the dash.

[–] orthogonal_cube 2 days ago
Certainly not new. Though the space under the hood remains fairly constant, the free space has decreased. There are more and more components becoming difficult to reach and service while they’re among the first to wear out.
[–] Scubabear68 2 days ago
Sensors and crumple zones are part of it. But for the Telluride, some of the issue as well is that the OEM parts are often available only for gross assemblies. So where as historically you could get discrete parts for other manufacturers, for KIA they often only have big pre-assembled assemblies available. That was the case for the alternator which played a few different roles and could only be replaced en-masse. Headlights are another area where any damage requires an entirely new assembly.

The approach makes repairability really, really expensive.

[–] toeknee 2 days ago
One interesting thing I noticed about Chinese vehicles is that the expensive sensor arrays are commonly mounted on the roof, presumably safe from small fender benders. Hopefully Western manufacturers will pick up that feature.
[–] scheme271 2 days ago
Ideally that would be the place to keep them. It'd also help with not having to recalibrate the sensor arrays due to bumps that might not damage anything but which jostle things a bit. I think recalibration essentially requires an expensive visit to the dealer since the software needed to do it is dealer only or extremely expensive for independent mechanics.