—what new variables? Besides the clotshots making some folks slower and fuzzier I’ve written before about the cell phone plague. The highway that goes by my house kills about one a week from talking, answering, or looking down to hide one while texting, etc. Tow truck drivers tell me they see it daily. My brother is a 7 million mile long hauler and he tells me he sees it coast-to-coast. Coincidentally, his new truck is super instrumented with at least 9 full time cameras. And the cameras are “smart.” They can warn him if nearby vehicles do odd stuff.
And BTW, it’s not anecdotal here. The local scrap yard has the mangled sheet metal to make the point. The tow truck yards store them until the insurance co’s sign off.
Another fakter I think I see is defective tail/signal lights on newer cars. And they are way too expensive to get fixed. The average, or less, driver just can’t change a bulb. The upshot is I’m seeing a lot more dented fenders than in the past. People think they’re signaling but they actually aren’t ‘cause the dabb light isn’t working?
Thanks for that.
Another issue here in Canada is that a couple of decades ago the feds mandated daytime running lights for the front of vehicles. So now we have oafs (oaves?) driving at night with no taillights because they see the running lights on the road ahead of them, so they think their ass ends are lit up, too.
Damn feds fixing a problem that didn’t exist (not being able to see cars during the day) and making things worse, and more dangerous.
Typical.
So true. Even if you can do your own work there so many new cars you have to replace the entire assembly. I've seen $600 for a tail light assembly. Imagine if you have to pay a garage to do it for you.
There should be something like an average cost of replacement parts on the window sticker in car lots.