Posted on 06/02/2024 7:27:35 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
More than one fifth of all crashed cars are now totaled by insurance assessors.
Proportion of new vehicles written off has increased due to high repair costs.
The cost of fixing ADAS systems designed to prevent accidents is often deemed not worth it.
The rocketing cost of repairing crashed cars means 21 percent of wrecks now result in a vehicle being totaled by insurance firms, a five-fold increase versus 1980. And some experts think that number could jump to a staggering 30 percent as cars become even more complex.
Ironically, it’s the same ADAS driver aids designed to save us from having an accident in the first place that are being blamed for the rise in write-offs when we do crash. The tech that goes into those systems is so expensive that insurers are finding that it’s not worth sanctioning a repair.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Alignment is one of the few things that “should” be able to be done outside the dealership because it shouldn’t require a dealer-proprietary scan tool.
It is a combination...as you mentioned “CAFE” fuel economy standards have added to repair cost (aluminum panels, etc.) and CAFE stds. have caused plastic headlights that cloud up (glass is too heavy), plastic bumpers, lightweight brake rotors that cannot be “turned” more than maybe once (have to buy new), etc....but “ADAS” type systems have also caused a massive increase in initial new car/truck cost. Starting with things like government mandated back-up cameras....more in this list:
- Model year 2011. The NHTSA recommended FCW, lane-departure warning and electronic stability control (ESC) for points in NCAP ratings. ESC became a mandate for model year 2012.
- Model years 2014–2017. The NHTSA recommended rear backup video for NCAP ratings. It became a mandate in model year 2018.
- November 2015. The NHTSA recommended AEB for NCAP ratings.
- December 2015. The NHTSA released a key report with extensive information on AEB, FCW and blind-spot detection. This type of report is called a request for comments (RFC), and it is used when the NHTSA wants feedback from the auto industry.
- The NHTSA made a voluntary agreement with most auto OEMs to include AEB in all light vehicles sold by 2022.
- Spring 2021. The NHTSA announced its intention to make AEB a mandate as an FMVSS.
- March 2022. The NHTSA released its most important RFC, with extensive information and future plans on ADAS technology. The RFC had 236 pages and included a 10-year roadmap for ADAS, NCAP and future rating systems.
- May 2023. The first result of the 2022 RFC was announced with a mandate for FCW, AEB and PAEB.
Now Biden/Pete “Buttiejudge” want mandated ADAS drunk driving attention detection tech with a “kill switch”.
So the government mandated systems add thousands to the price of new vehicles and add thousands to the price to repair them. In addition to the CAFE standards costs.
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” —President Ronald Reagan
I saw a 72 Fury lll the other day for 12000.00 and thought hmmmm. There isn’t any part of that thing you can’t fix or buy now.
Back in the day with mild steel only, the body shop could pull the car back into spec, heat the frame during the pull, and collision repair was a lot cheaper. But the crash safety was nowhere near as good.
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Yes, and the “unibody” approach of molding the undercarriage into the sheet metal of the body has been a main contributor, causing the totaling out of a car.
It’s been a few years, but the same thing happened to me due to a hail storm, that ‘Totaled” my car. But my company let me keep my car and deducted the salvage value from what they paid me and I still had enough to get the damage repaired. Now my company would not let me get collision insurance again until I proved it was all repaired, which I did.
Thanks for the explanation. When I come across articles that use an acronym with out defining it, I immediately stop reading. Even if I know what it means, I stop reading out of principle.
Proportion of new vehicles written off has increased due to high repair costs.
Many of these totaled vehicles are still drivable. The insurance companies sell them to exporters for more than the cost of the repairs, and then resold in second and third world countries.
Ah, so my suspicions were correct. Thanks for the information. The more they try to take responsibility out of our hands the more we get put into harms way. The genius ones who are telling us that we are incompetent need to look inward. Sounds about right as far as my experiences have noted.
True, but 1 in 5 leave them on, as the statistics show. 🤣
The only thing of use is probably the back up camera. If you’re in a smallish vehicle, and you have a large SUV on one side and a minivan on the other you can at least somewhat see when trying to back out.
As far as the rest of the nanny BS like auto braking, blind spot monitoring, lane assist, etc, etc wouldn’t be needed if 1.) They had better drivers ED requirements. 2.) Disable data features on phones while a vehicle is in motion so drivers can’t watch YouTube, post to Facebook, check emails, and text while they’re driving down the road.
3.) Better enforcement of driving laws.
Just as long as they pay what the car was valued at before the accident, I have no problem with this...why have them pay $30K for a car that is valued at $25K or less? That just raises all our rates.
When the insurance company wrote off my f-350 that had been stolen, they gave me HALF what a replacement of the same year would cost AFTER recovery! They also would not cover anything that was in the truck, like my tools, the pony tank, the running boards, the headache rack, etc.
Insurance companies are possibly the most dishonest non-government entities in existence, rivalling environmentalist extremists.
Yeah, but personal responsibility/training doesn’t reinforce the “deep nanny-state”!! ;-) It is “self-reinforcing”/every expanding.
We have a later model car that came with 3 or 4 manuals. You have to learn all the subsystems. My daughter actually had a job at a local dealership for a while training people how to use their new cars.
Mid 60s GM cars were also the pinnacle of styling. The 1965 Pontiacs, for example, were all amazing looking cars.
I had a rental car in Europe with all this crap on it. Truly frightening if you didn’t know what was going on. The engine shut off at stops. The auto correct steering would throw you all over the road. All the beeping and buzzing every time you turned. I hate all the crap. Especially in Europe where roads are narrow and tight.
I remember as a kid, we had returned stateside from Japan, and my dad pulled out of a gas station as if he were still in Japan. We all screamed wrong side of the street dad. Fortunately was still not crazy in 1961, which may have been why my father had pulled out on the wrong side of the road.
2.) Disable data features on phones while a vehicle is in motion so drivers can’t watch YouTube, post to Facebook, check emails, and text while they’re driving down the road.
Thanks. Journalists and writers are getting lazy. Their use of acronyms is getting ridiculous.
Some of the costs truly are infuriating. The other day I was looking at a fairly late model car and it had a cracked windshield. I wondered what it would cost to fix it so I called up window shop... can’t remember the exact value but it was X amount for the windshield replacement, about another $300 since it had a feature to sense rain.... but that’s not all, it was about another $300 to calibrate the rain sensing device.
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