R.T James
Furry Steampunk Street Urchin
High tensile steel is used in order to reduce thickness. Ergo cost. A gm plant manager was bragging about how the chevy Camaro has 26 spot welds holding the sides of the car together. They also use adhesives made by 3M and have been since the mid 90s instead of welding the vehicles together. That is why if you've ever tried to find a ground on these cars, You can't.
Go a cadillac dealership and LEAN on a steel quarter panel of one of their 70k cars. You will hear a disturbing sound. I've done it. Is my car going to survive the latest crash test designed to test the most precise absurd methods? No, but here's the facts I know. If I hit something I have 6 inch shock absorbing bumpers that will transfer to the frame. The front fenders will buckle in and Then the rest will have to go through a 1/4 inch cold rolled steel frame.
Most things made and chimed by engineers aren't for the benefit of technology. Its for the benefit of manufacturing, ergo cheaper and faster to crap out.
Also here's a thing. Where I live they salt the bloody roads like the rims of margarita glasses. We had a bridge collapse a over a decade ago due to the steel failing inside of it. They wouldn't confess why, but it was due to the corrosion. My car has a steel frame that its the main structural member.
All cars are now monobody design meaning the body and frame are one.(They claim this for strength but it is for cheapness. You can stamp out everything, spot weld it it together or use adhesive, and sent the body down the assembly line. Versus my crown victoria which had a body welded by GMAW then galvanized dipped, then you had the frame done separately welded with SMAW and GMAW then assembled together in the plant.) So you get rust on your rocker panels, header panel, and the top of strut towers you are having your structural integrity reduced drastically! Also these thin high carbon tempered steels rust incredibly fast on these cars. My 1986 vic has very little rust in comparison to cars from 1990's to 2000 and even 2013. Also thinner steels mean you have less to give.
Cars were heavy and made to last during the 1950's and 60's the only downside was engine design which due to the oils they had would wear out at about 100,000 miles requiring rebuilds. But I've seen these old engines with modern day diesel engine oil keep on chugging along!
I take what many engineers say with a pound of salt, due to the simple fact as a welder I've seen engineers make prints that were physically impossible to weld, Two plates on the end of a 2.5 inch diameter tube about 18 inches long, and they wanted something welded on the inside of the tube in the centre! I've seen our engineers at the place I work at now make the most stupidest things that do not work, or over complicate things just because they can. (There are good engineers out there, but theres a reason machinists, welders, and the list goes on and on cringe when an engineer walks by. Usually they have Head up butt syndrome and can't think straight.)
Also by modern engineering standards Isambard Kingdom Burnell was a terrible engineer because his stuff is still standing, still in use today!
Modern engineering is about making it only handle the minimal of what is required. And people wonder why their cars now suddenly start blowing up after the warranty ends!
It's the greatest and best invention man kind has made planned obsolescence! Now we have a disposable society that claims to give two craps about the environment.
*Bites tongue and walks away to scream to the stars*
Sure there are things modern cars are better at. Fuel economy<-- (Only one they win hands down) 'Reliability' (which is mostly argued because the dare thought of MAINTAINING a car has been bred out of our culture, and aided by engineers who make these cars impossible to work on. So the cars are made to last without maintenance until they explode after the warranty rolls over give or take) and 'Safety' standards which seem to padded by number of airbags per cubic cm and how many ways the steel can crumble in the front. Which means a parking lot fender bender at low speeds will total out your car.
You know one thing modern cars suck at but my old boat is good at? Visibility! Yupe. No thick A pillars and its rear is not pointing out at the sky. I do not need a rearview back up camera to reverse a car the size of most New York apartments! I can see all four corners of it and its blind spots are smaller.
If an SUV t-bones you, it doesn't matter what you're in. Or a semi. You're still going to feel it. However from everything I've seen. I'd rather be in my boat because I wouldn't have an airbag branding the logo into my face or the roof caving in upon me.
I'm ending this rant here because I could go on and on and on about this topic. I've studied it when I wanted to be an engineer and I realized I could not. I could not because I think too much of a mindset of make it the best it can be. Not make it only handle X Y Z.
Most of man kind's technology is aided by one factor.
Not superiority, but cheapness.
And if you look deeper, greed.
Cheaper to make= more profit= equals more money= more people buying it means more demand= higher price which will eventually result in cost cutting corners for more profits!
However that equals diminishing quality = regulations for public safety or lobbying of interests of other for more money= more the manufacturer has to do= more cost which they will not front= add onto price= more corner cutting elsewhere go back to beginning of this block.
Go a cadillac dealership and LEAN on a steel quarter panel of one of their 70k cars. You will hear a disturbing sound. I've done it. Is my car going to survive the latest crash test designed to test the most precise absurd methods? No, but here's the facts I know. If I hit something I have 6 inch shock absorbing bumpers that will transfer to the frame. The front fenders will buckle in and Then the rest will have to go through a 1/4 inch cold rolled steel frame.
Most things made and chimed by engineers aren't for the benefit of technology. Its for the benefit of manufacturing, ergo cheaper and faster to crap out.
Also here's a thing. Where I live they salt the bloody roads like the rims of margarita glasses. We had a bridge collapse a over a decade ago due to the steel failing inside of it. They wouldn't confess why, but it was due to the corrosion. My car has a steel frame that its the main structural member.
All cars are now monobody design meaning the body and frame are one.(They claim this for strength but it is for cheapness. You can stamp out everything, spot weld it it together or use adhesive, and sent the body down the assembly line. Versus my crown victoria which had a body welded by GMAW then galvanized dipped, then you had the frame done separately welded with SMAW and GMAW then assembled together in the plant.) So you get rust on your rocker panels, header panel, and the top of strut towers you are having your structural integrity reduced drastically! Also these thin high carbon tempered steels rust incredibly fast on these cars. My 1986 vic has very little rust in comparison to cars from 1990's to 2000 and even 2013. Also thinner steels mean you have less to give.
Cars were heavy and made to last during the 1950's and 60's the only downside was engine design which due to the oils they had would wear out at about 100,000 miles requiring rebuilds. But I've seen these old engines with modern day diesel engine oil keep on chugging along!
I take what many engineers say with a pound of salt, due to the simple fact as a welder I've seen engineers make prints that were physically impossible to weld, Two plates on the end of a 2.5 inch diameter tube about 18 inches long, and they wanted something welded on the inside of the tube in the centre! I've seen our engineers at the place I work at now make the most stupidest things that do not work, or over complicate things just because they can. (There are good engineers out there, but theres a reason machinists, welders, and the list goes on and on cringe when an engineer walks by. Usually they have Head up butt syndrome and can't think straight.)
Also by modern engineering standards Isambard Kingdom Burnell was a terrible engineer because his stuff is still standing, still in use today!
Modern engineering is about making it only handle the minimal of what is required. And people wonder why their cars now suddenly start blowing up after the warranty ends!
It's the greatest and best invention man kind has made planned obsolescence! Now we have a disposable society that claims to give two craps about the environment.
*Bites tongue and walks away to scream to the stars*
Sure there are things modern cars are better at. Fuel economy<-- (Only one they win hands down) 'Reliability' (which is mostly argued because the dare thought of MAINTAINING a car has been bred out of our culture, and aided by engineers who make these cars impossible to work on. So the cars are made to last without maintenance until they explode after the warranty rolls over give or take) and 'Safety' standards which seem to padded by number of airbags per cubic cm and how many ways the steel can crumble in the front. Which means a parking lot fender bender at low speeds will total out your car.
You know one thing modern cars suck at but my old boat is good at? Visibility! Yupe. No thick A pillars and its rear is not pointing out at the sky. I do not need a rearview back up camera to reverse a car the size of most New York apartments! I can see all four corners of it and its blind spots are smaller.
If an SUV t-bones you, it doesn't matter what you're in. Or a semi. You're still going to feel it. However from everything I've seen. I'd rather be in my boat because I wouldn't have an airbag branding the logo into my face or the roof caving in upon me.
I'm ending this rant here because I could go on and on and on about this topic. I've studied it when I wanted to be an engineer and I realized I could not. I could not because I think too much of a mindset of make it the best it can be. Not make it only handle X Y Z.
Most of man kind's technology is aided by one factor.
Not superiority, but cheapness.
And if you look deeper, greed.
Cheaper to make= more profit= equals more money= more people buying it means more demand= higher price which will eventually result in cost cutting corners for more profits!
However that equals diminishing quality = regulations for public safety or lobbying of interests of other for more money= more the manufacturer has to do= more cost which they will not front= add onto price= more corner cutting elsewhere go back to beginning of this block.
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