What are the pros and cons of plastic cars?

Ive been answering a number of letters as we in the UK have had fibreglass vehicles and parts of, for over 50 years . One peice lorry cabs double deck buses one peice roofs plus all fiberglass double deck buses fronts,rears corner panels fewer with side panels..
One scribe was so scared I suggested never to visit the UK as the Aircraft ,taxis ,buses or train travel will all have fibreglass to a lesser or greater degree..If you want to see Midland Red (BMMO)buses being moulded from 50 years ago I have photographs I can send you my Email is
colin1935@hotmail.com

The lights are tripped by the metallic wheel disrupting a magnetic field. Depending on where the loops are positioned under the pavement, you could do it with the engine block or transmission as well.

For those that must get the green light first. A clicker that you can pay a buck on each click to get the green light to stay on for you. Ebay powered...

Bob

the repair/replacement cost are nearly identical between metal and plastic. the only time this is untrue is with very minor damage that the plastic can rebound from and not dent.

My friend at the dealership who does body work, says otherwise. Plastic is more expensive to produce and since they tend to damage more easy in even the most minor of hits, the demand is higher, thus more expensive.

i was speaking in general terms without going into the details of what type of plastic is used in the panel and where it's at on the vehicle. he is absolutly correct in some situations.
plastic is no more expensive to produce than steel if it is used on a wider basis. running an entire assembly plant just to make the door skins for a single model is just too expensive.
for repair costs... whack my fiero door with a ax and do the same thing to a sunfire, both will need a door skin.
i order the fiero panel and send it to the paint shop, they prep it and cut it in and maybe even apply the first coats of color to the outside, a bodyman then puts the new panel on the door using a few basic hand tools and sends the whole car back to the paint shop for blending and clearing
i order a door skin for the sunfire, a bodyman removes the door, grinds and chisels the old skin off, cleans up and repairs the door frame, uses a hammer and dolly to fold the new skin onto the frame, puts the door on the car, checks for fit, tack welds it in place, removes the door, now he repairs the damage the hammer and dolly did to the face of the door, then sends the door to the paintshop, they prep it and prime all of the damaged areas, seam seal the folded lip, and cut it in, then the door heads back to the bodyshop for final fit-up and corrosion protection and after all of that the whole car goes back to the paintshop for color and clear
if you have to guess which repair is more money???
now that situation can be reversed for bonded in place plastic panels.
for parking lot damage the plastic panel is cheaper because it can rebound. for heavier damage the metal panel will dent and the plastic panel may break and it is cheaper to bump/repair than to replace

Be realistic here. You're talking about a vaccuum cleaner for Pete's sake. The plastic used to mold it is completely different from what you would use for an automotive application. The UV package protecting the colorant is different, plasticizers (chemical that prevents brittleness) are different... The whole additive package is different. And whether our not you THINK it saw sunlight, it did see more intense UV radiation and it did live in a prolonged heat cycle. Aside from that, the SCIENCE of plastic is not what it was in 1980. There was very little science to plastic materials until then. Now, it's a totally different ballgame. And yes, any automotive plastic is tested in conditions more severe than Arizona's summer or Calgary's winter. It's called Life Cycle Testing and a car can not go into prodcution for sale to the public without passing this testing and a formal submission to the NHTSA.

Manufacturers, by law, do have to be concerned with their products end of life use - 90% of a car MUST be recycleable by Federal Mandate. People dying of pollution related diseases and conditions has no bearing on this discussion so I'm not sure I get your point here.

I don't get the airborne comment either. That has to do with fluid dynamics and no automaker would allow a design causing lift to be produced. The liability for design is enormous.

From most of your comments, you sound like a close-minded fuddy-duddy but hey, I could be wrong!

Comment: From most of your comments, you sound like a close-minded fuddy-duddy but hey, I could be wrong!

Reply: Not closed minded at all and definitely not a fuddy-duddy but I tend to think you must be young, wear rose coloured glasses and read only the sports pages and the comics in the newspaper.

Comment: Be realistic here. You're talking about a vaccuum cleaner for Pete's sake.

Reply: Guess I should have mentioned that you must also be a very literal person with little understanding of symbolism. I wasn't talking about vacuum cleaners; I was talking about plastic. And I fear that plastic will end up being like lead. You may not remember lead but it used to be put in gas to prevent knocking etc. And everyone used it at one time - there was no choice! For 50 plus years it was used in gas before it became known that it as well as it's positive qualities, lead was and still is a significant environmental contaminant because it is toxic, persistent, is and stored in biological tissues when breathed in, ingested etc. It makes people sick and can kill them and it took 50 years to learn this about the gas we used and thousands of years when you consider that lead poisoning from drinking water carried to homes in lead pipes is considered a major cause in the downfall of the Roman Empire. Long term effects are not given enough consideration. They may not effect you but they may very well affect your children, grandchildren etc.

Comment: Manufacturers, by law, do have to be concerned with their products end of life use.

Reply: By law men must not murder other men but they do. By law, meat is to be inspected but inspectors can be bought off and packers can play with the law and then we get ecoli outbreaks.Laws regarding standards put on products are not normally enacted until After a product has hurt, maimed or killed a number of people. Except for the Ten Commandments, laws are a reactionary move in most things. And some things take a very long time of hurting people before they are reacted to. There is an expression, "Fools rush in where wise men fear to go" and most of those fools of late are manufacturing something or governing somewhere.

Comment: I don't get the airborne comment either.

Reply: I cannot believe you have never seen a car become airborne. It's a favourite shot in movies and Evil Knevil made a career out of making cars and bikes airborne. Less entertaining is hitting the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong speed and WOW! your car becomes airborne and you crash at the end of it all. The lighter the car, the farther it flies and if you have ever driven through the Rockies or Alps, that can be one very long distance and the longer the distance, the harder you land. Not my idea of a great way to go. But then neither is the cancer I have been fighting since 1991 the result of another manufactured and widely used and loudly touted commodity at one time - DDT.

I am not saying that there are no positives to having plastic cars, just that the idea should be more fully researched and all the results made public before you jump in. I'm not a fuddy-duddy but I am old enough to remember food that tasted good and was fit to eat, air that was sweet and healthy to breathe and cars that were strong enough to hit a pole and do more damage to the pole than to the car or the driver. If you do not learn from the mistakes in history, you are bound to repeat them. Don't repeat them. I sort of admire anyone with enough jam to call me a fuddy duddy on International Internet and do not want to see you come to any unfortunate end. :o)

in closed environments the the use of more plastics and lighter weight metals would make great forms of transportation. but in the real world we all face too many different situations. double bottom semi trailers,hummers,trains and even deer crossing the road for us to find a balance

well, first of all.. I am tired of being an EQUAL victim compared to the victims of 9/11 with METAL cars here in the DESERTS of Arizona burning me all over before the air conditioner to kick in. It takes approxiametely 30 minutes for the inside of the car to cool down and everyone winds up home by then. Plastic cars, how thick is the plastic, will the PLASTIC melt in 109+ degree C weather? Will it cool faster?
Would the price change? Less , more?
Overall, I believe it would be a *GREAT* idea to have plastic cars... and I'm still waiting for more SOLAR CARS.. whats up with all of this?

sincerely,
DENISE MARIE KING
I.T. INDUSTRY MANAGER
vgl(viriigrrl) of EFNET
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You speak many half truths.

Metal cars did rust. New metallurgy can, and is used to prevent rust.

Metal can, and does, dissipate kinetic energy. It is more of how the metal is formed that allows it to do this. Car companies do not say this because they have invested interest in convincing people plastic is safe.

False, metal car accidents are not more expensive. Transfer of energy to the frame occurs more in plastic cars because the panels are designed to fly off the car, resulting in the only thing left to take the rest of the blow, the frame.

I find it odd that metal hoods flying through windshields has never come up in my research. I also find it odd because as far as I know, most hoods are still metal because they found plastic would warp over time due to heat rise from the engine during low speeds or idle. Perhaps this has changed recently.

I have heard of metal hoods coming through the windshield, but not anytime recently. It used to happen before they were designed to bend in the center on impact (I don't think it took too long to figure out something needed to be done).

And I know this is not what you are arguing, but its not about the condition the car is in following an accident, it is about the condition of the passengers. I am not an expert, but I believe metal and plastic can absorb the same amount of energy given the right engineering.

Yes there have been recent advancements in plastics that would allow larger molds without warping.

if you open the hood you will see the built in crumple zone on both the left and right side, plus there are types of hooks formed into the rear corners on a lot of them.
this forces the hood to bend up across the middle and submarine into the cowl at the rear.
yes "plastic" hoods have a bad habit of cracking at the hinge areas. this usually because they need to use heavier springs/struts to hold them up or to help you open it. why???? because they are most often heavier than a steel hood.

I think you mean the chassis as in a RTA your lives are safer with
fibreglass body(Even hitting a tree) The chassis turns whatever into tank (Real tanks have fibreglass )

EQUAL victim compared to the victims of 9/11...Do you think you could find another way to express yourself? Or if it is that bad go jump off the 70th floor because you would rather die from the fall.

will the PLASTIC melt in 109+ degree C weather?...no if you read some of the other posts you would see that this is not soda bottle plastic, but 109+ degree C? You do know that water boils at 100 degrees C right? Maybe you mean F...