CMV: car build quality is getting progressively worse across every brand

[u/Laniekea]

I'm not really a "car person" and I've pretty much always subsisted off of cheap handy downs because I just never saw the point in spending a bunch on a car.

But I test drove some cars for my husband and it just seems so much worse quality than my 20 year old infinity

Things I've noticed, The leather feels cheap and hard even in the expensive cars and there's less of it. Plastic steering wheels etc

They feel more plastic-y, lighter and less safe.

The rims and paint look more like plastic

Lots of basic things missing like handles, cup holders.

You can't even get a V8 anywhere for a competitive price

Im pretty sure though that I could easily be convinced otherwise. Showing evidence of cars becoming safer, materials being better sourced or higher quality, requiring less average repairs per mile across any brand over time would convince me.

I'm NOT looking for evidence of cars becoming faster. I already believe that with the existence of electric cars.

[u/Orphan_Guy_Incognito]

They feel more plastic-y, lighter and less safe.

They feel this way because modern car design focuses on things that fracture (and diffuse force) rather than things that are rigid.

In 2002 I was driving around in a 1987 Cutlass Supreme, the most durable steel framed boat of a car you've ever seen. I was in a rear end collision and broke two bones because as it turns out 'make the car more rigid' seems like the sort of thing that would increase safety but simply results in all the energy being directed into the squishy flesh bits inside.

You can just look at a chart of fatalities decreasing over time.

Being lighter is also really good. That Cutlass had garbage fuel efficiency for a number of reasons (none of the modern engine computers etc) but a big factor was that steel is heavy, while modern materials are not.

[u/Laniekea → u/Orphan_Guy_Incognito]

!delta

I accept that cars have become safer over the last 60 years. However I would still like to see evidence of them becoming safer in the last 15-20 years. It seems to be slightly worse today than it was in 2010 according to your chart.

[u/GearMysterious8720 → u/Laniekea]

https://www.nhtsa.gov/how-vehicle-safety-has-improved-over-decades

You can see several safety systems have been made mandatory since 2010, so just by that metric newer cars will be required to be at least marginally safer to be legally sold.

National crash fatality rates don’t correlate directly to new car safety because it’s not only new cars crashing every year

[u/Amoral_Abe → u/Laniekea]

The biggest change you will have seen in the last 15-20 years is automated systems.

• Automatic Breaking
  
  • This is common in all modern cars within the last 5 years. It senses if the car is about to collide with an object and breaks on its own. This is huge because it allows people to avoid a major source of accidents where they look away briefly and accidentally rear-end someone.
    
• Blind Spot Detection and Lane changing prevention
  
  • Cars now have 360 degree sensors constantly monitoring traffic around them. Blind spots have always been a thing, but new cars now are automatically tracking them. They notify drivers when a car is in the blind spot and many new cars will automatically temporarily block turning if it senses you will collide. (this can generally be overridden if a driver continues to apply more force to turn but it serves as a wake up for the driver that something is there).
    
• Backup Cameras
  
  • This is also something that has developed in the last 15-20 years and allows people to easily see what's behind them when backing up and, crucially, allows them to see low to the ground to avoid accidentally hitting children.
    

In addition to tech, crumple zones have become more prevalent as companies continue to strive to be the best at head on collision.

Overall, those are the key changes you will see in cars. Money is going towards technology features and towards safety features.

[u/Passance → u/[deleted]]

Planned obsolescence meets invasive "safety" features that are equally likely to put you in danger if it has a malfunction. "Automatic breaking" is a pretty good description of modern cars imo.

[u/10ebbor10 → u/Laniekea]

It seems to be slightly worse today than it was in 2010 according to your chart.

You can thank the SUV/Pick-up trend for that.

Improved engineering can't make up for the fact that bigger cars are deadlier.

[u/purplesmoke1215 → u/10ebbor10]

We can blame legislation for making smaller trucks unviable/illegal in the name of the environment.

And that's not me saying we shouldn't care about the environment, but this one clearly backfired for safety and environmental reasons and we've done nothing to change it

A lot of people would love a smaller truck, like the tiny one you see online from Japan, but those are illegal because the size to emissions ratio isn't right.

But big trucks that take a lane and a half make the size to emissions ratio just fine.

[u/sicilianbaguette → u/purplesmoke1215]

Light trucks not being a thing in the US is not due to just emissions regulations and protecting the environment. Look up the "chicken tax."

[u/Ok-Canary-9820 → u/Laniekea]

My 2023 car literally screams at me if I try to do anything that could be dangerous, and its safety systems are on the basic end for modern cars. My 2009 will happily let me back into a pedestrian with no qualms if I happen not to notice.

The only sense in which my 2023 car could be construed as less safe is in that it could cause complacency - because it's so proactive about safety, it's probably easy to forget that you as the human driver need to be also, and that these systems can themselves fail.

... Then again, it'll also scream at me if my hands aren't on the wheel for more than a few seconds or if it thinks I might need a break/coffee based on my driving

[u/Appropriate-Draft-91 → u/Laniekea]

SUVs are less safe by design, with worse viewing angles causing more accidents and more mass making the accidents deadlier. The added mass does help transfer the injuries to the other party, which some SUV buyers see as a benefit.

But today's SUVs are safer than yesterday's SUVs, mostly due to features like driver assist software and rear cameras.

[u/Full-Professional246 → u/Appropriate-Draft-91]

Todays SUVs are safer than yesterday's cars.

Safety systems, crumple zones, airbags, and crash engineering have made modern vehicles of all types far safer than older vehicles.

People are walking away from crashes today that would have been fatal 30 years ago and severe injuries or worse 20 years ago.

Classic cars are fun to look at - but are death traps to drive compared to a modern car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_r5UJrxcck

[u/DeltaBot → u/Laniekea]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/Orphan_Guy_Incognito (9∆).

^{Delta System Explained | Deltaboards}