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Automotive News & Views What's with all the plastic body panels?
23 messages, Last post on May 22, 2006 at 9:06 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
| ....if weight savings is the main concern, that could be achieved by using light weight alloys. They are even lighter than plastic, stronger, and considering the high prices of today's vehicles, there's no reason they couldn't use more of it. | |
| what all is packed into cars today, I don't think they're really all that expensive. Sure, more money than I might want to pay, but for the most part your money gets you more car these days than in the past. All that stuff like airbags, emissions controls, computers controlling everything, power stuff, OHC engines, trannies with 6-7 forward gears, etc, comes with a price. And to keep the overall price of the car reasonable, they have to cut costs somewhere. So you're going to get cheaper, more plasticky interiors, more plastic in the body, etc. Using more alloys is probably still too cost prohibitive, at least in mainstream vehicles. | |
| ....and I'm told by the sales person that an absolute bottom of the line basic commuter car like the Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris is going to sell for $13K-$14K, vehicles are way too expensive. You can't buy anything worth having that's large enough to haul a family these days for less than $20K, and SUV's, full sized pickups, sports cars, and luxo vehicles sell for $35K on up. For those kinds of prices I see absolutely no reason why alloys couldn't be used in place of cheap plastic. | |
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Does anyone know if the new Saturn Aura and Sky have the dent resistant wonders called doors on these new models ???? I'm assuming yes.... Rocky
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Replying to: rockylee (May 05, 2006 2:02 am) A few Facts about plastic body panels: -Dent resistant. You will not get those annoying parking lot "dings". -Only Smart has molded-in-color body panels (GEs Xenoy). They will fade over time. -Those "cheap" plastic body panels actually cost more than steel (pound for pound). BMW currently used plastic on front fender because of the premium attributes it brings (long term durability) -Pre-1995 Plastic body panels had issues that have been mostly resolved as of 2006. Paint adhesion, heat, ductility, etc. are not the problems they used to be) -Chryslers LH vehicles of the early 90's had Dow's Bexloy resin in the fenders. Poor dimensional stability lead to their replacement. -Fascias (bumper covers) are made of lower quality materials than side body panels (typically) because the repair strategy for them is replacement. The best material would still need to be replace even in a minor crash (including steel). -As someone stated earlier, auto weight savings are cumulative. The more heavy metal parts you can replace with plastic, the lighter your car will get. Auto makers currently rank priorities this way: 1.cost 2.quality 3.weight. Very often, car makers will be forced to take weight out at the expence of 1 and 2 due to CAFE (Cumulative Anual Fuel Efficincy)ratings. -Plastic used in todays body panels will not crease. you are more likely to get a crack before it would crease. And, the forces required to crack the plastic would produce a truly unsightly gouge in a steel door or fender. -make a fist and punch a steel car door. make a fist and puch a plastic car door. which will require repair? There's more but i've said enough.
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Replying to: plasticar (May 12, 2006 9:54 am) My guess would be your fist.
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Replying to: snakeweasel (May 12, 2006 9:59 am)
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Replying to: plasticar (May 12, 2006 10:13 am) |
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I think the point of the unpainted plastic on the Element, CR-V, X3, etc. is purely visual. When something that tall is painted in a solid color, it looks awkward. With a dark trim along the bottom portion of the vehicle, the painted portion looks shorter and better proportioned. |
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I pounded out the rear quarter panel on my 1980 Malibu when someone did a hit-and-run on it in the school parking lot. I also dented the door of said Malibu when one day I didn't close it right, but instead of unlocking it and slamming it again, I just pushed up against it to force it all the way shut. Now that was an era when they were starting to roll the sheetmetal thinner to save weight (although I'm sure much of it's thinner still these days) but even with my '68 Dart, I was able to pound a dent in the front fender out when I got sideswiped by a newer Ram. And I'm proud to say, my '68 opened up that new thing like a tin can!  A few months later a Tacoma hit the same spot on the Dart, and as it bounced harmlessly off and I could see an easy $1-2K worth of body damage on the Taco, I just thought to myself, damn, I'm going to have to punch that fender out again! As for plastic body panels? Well those type that Saturn uses/used to use, where the color is all the way through, that will hold up better than metal when it comes to scraping, chipping, peeling, etc. And naturally, if you put your fist into it, it's just going to bounce back. For a cheaper way of demonstrating this, go try to punch out a rubbermaid trashcan a few times, and then after that go and pick a fight with an old fashioned steel trashcan, and see which one dents quicker. Now with repeated bashings, the plastic will eventually fatigue and crack in places. You'll start to see the stress marks, just like with a plastic snowshovel that gets overloaded a few times too many. But now, plastic panels that get painted are VERY fragile. They'll probably hold up okay to something like your fist, but stone chips, door dings, etc will make a mess of them in short order. And often, once that paint on the plastic starts to peel, it'll never stop. The bare spot will just get bigger and bigger, exacerbated by airflow when you're driving, weather, bugs that hit it, etc. As for going to the doctor after punching out a car door, well that depends on how hard you hit it. It's only going to give in so far before your fist does, so if you were to hit one with all your might, you might break something. Unless you are a wuss and just can't hit that hard. 
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Automotive News & Views What's with all the plastic body panels?
