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Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

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Re: Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

#41

Post by alistairSH »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #2

“cast bodies might be more difficult to fix in the event of major damage, such as a crash.” Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a car NOT be written off after “major damage”. The industry already doesn’t bother to fix cars, they just get scrapped, so I don’t see what the actual difference is.

Hand raised!

I was rear-ended in a new Jeep Wrangler. Damage included a bent frame, crushed rear bumper, bent rear hatch, bent roll cage, bent rear fender, shattered tail light, and a bent floor.

It was nearly $20k in damage. It was repaired. [and I very quickly sold it because I had zero faith in the longevity of the repairs]

Re: Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

#42

Post by oldpersonintx »

ChumpGPT wrote: post #30

Does anyone think 99% of the car buyers market cares about cast bodies? Just look at all the folks who bought Tesla's, they don't have a problem buying a car that costs more to insure, waiting for months to get repaired, at the same time happy with poor finishes, paying extra for every possible detail, and never being able to fix them on their own. Most folks in the car market chase fashion and could care less about…

99% of the market cares about cheaper cars...and eventually, cast bodies will reduce costs substantially

Re: Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

#43

Post by ravenstine »

cypress66 wrote: post #37
ravenstine wrote: post #29

Like I've said many times, until regulation mitigates the enshittification of vehicles, you will have to pry my dumbcar from my cold dead hands. You want me to buy an electric vehicle? Don't pull shenanigans that disempower me.

Enshittification is subscriptions, software locked features, telemetry and always online systems, and so on. Using these casts, regardless of how good or bad they are, is not enshittification.

If I owned a Toyota and wanted to buy another Toyota in the future, except Toyota only now makes cars that serve me less than my old one, that's absolutely enshittification. Who said the term is restricted to software?

Re: Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

#44

Post by segmondy »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #2

“cast bodies might be more difficult to fix in the event of major damage, such as a crash.” Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a car NOT be written off after “major damage”. The industry already doesn’t bother to fix cars, they just get scrapped, so I don’t see what the actual difference is.

Hands down. I haven't personally experienced major damage, but I have bought and know folks to buy many of these written off cars only to have them repaired, certified by the state and put back on the roads.

Re: Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

#45

Post by dragonwriter »

GenerocUsername wrote: post #11
tifik wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That the car is written off doesnt mean it gets scrapped though. It usually gets auctioned, and if its fixable, some mechanic can buy it for peanuts and put it back on the market.

So why the write off nonsense. Just send it to a repair shop directly and if it cannot be repaired, then initiate a write off. Sounds like extra steps for the profit of middle men

> So why the write off nonsense

Write-off is about insurance policies, and whether it is cheaper to repair damage to the standard committed to by the insurer within the parameters (e. g., new original manufacturer parts) in the insurance contact or to pay the amount the insurer is committed to pay in the alternative.

It is only tangentially related to whether it is econonically viable to restore the vehicle to usable condition.

Re: Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

#46

Post by crote »

GravityLab wrote: post #39

> Toyota anticipates it'll generate 20 percent higher productivity than its competitors, and could halve body assembly time from 10 hours. This is a nice efficiency gain, but they don’t seem to be constrained by how quickly they can produce cars…as far as I can tell, demand in the market for their product is more based on the cost of the supply, not how quickly they are producing units. Or are they thinking that by p…

Manufacturing cars currently still involves humans. Halving body assembly time also means you only need to pay half the wages for the humans. That's going to significantly reduce their expenses.

Re: Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

#47

Post by hellotheretoday »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #2

“cast bodies might be more difficult to fix in the event of major damage, such as a crash.” Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a car NOT be written off after “major damage”. The industry already doesn’t bother to fix cars, they just get scrapped, so I don’t see what the actual difference is.

That doesn’t mean it’s not fixed by someone else after auction and salvage titling assuming it’s a car that’s somewhat desirable. So this is just a move that generates more waste?

Re: Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

#48

Post by skullone »

hellotheretoday wrote: post #47
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #2

“cast bodies might be more difficult to fix in the event of major damage, such as a crash.” Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a car NOT be written off after “major damage”. The industry already doesn’t bother to fix cars, they just get scrapped, so I don’t see what the actual difference is.

That doesn’t mean it’s not fixed by someone else after auction and salvage titling assuming it’s a car that’s somewhat desirable. So this is just a move that generates more waste?

I mean, there's certainly rebuilt/salvaged cars, but more often than not people are scammed into buying those from shady AF places. Lesson is, don't waste your time or money on a unibody car with major damage. Scrap em. It's pointless. And people arguing we need to repair everything even from major damage when it makes zero economic or ecological sense and from those with no experience in the industry is just tiring.

Re: Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

#49

Post by semi-extrinsic »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #13
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With EVs this problem is getting a lot worse. In latest-gen EVs the battery pack is a stressed member of the frame. Any type of collision that distorts the frame will also imply a deformation of the battery module, which means instant write-off. So if you think about it - if you first decide you need to go down the "structural battery" route to save cost and weight, you've already lost repairability if the frame is b…

Can you point to any references/examples of this? Not a challenge, but as an EV owner I didn't know this and I'm interested to learn more.

Here is one story from Reuters that is citing GM, Volvo, CATL and BYD doing this, in addition to Tesla.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/next-s...

Re: Toyota Will Adopt Tesla-Style Cast Bodies That Might Be Impossible to Fix

#50

Post by crote »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #2

“cast bodies might be more difficult to fix in the event of major damage, such as a crash.” Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a car NOT be written off after “major damage”. The industry already doesn’t bother to fix cars, they just get scrapped, so I don’t see what the actual difference is.

It does lower the bar for what is considered "major damage".

Having a car written off when you need to essentially take the entire thing apart is fairly reasonable, as is not wanting to repair the actual body part itself.

When the car is made out of multiple different parts, a low-speed bump into a bollard or another car might result in the bumper needing to be replaced. Not the cheapest repair, but definitely quite doable and probably not worthy of a complete writeoff. When the entire car is made out of a single cast that very same bump results in the entire body needing to be replaced - and that's just not going to happen.

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