Overview of the vehicle’s history
- They don’t make them like they used to.
first cars
- The first cars were little more than a chariot and an engine (generally repaired by blacksmiths and carpenters. These cars were very expensive, and only the rich could afford them)
- The Model T was the first mass-produced car to roll off the assembly line in 1908 (Ford’s vision was to produce an affordable car that the average person could buy)
- The Model T only came in black to keep costs down. (The price dropped once the assembly line was simplified, but in 1908 the Model T started at $825. By 1913, the cost of the car had dropped to $550.)
cars in the sixties
Cars were built in the same basic way during the 1960s
- body over frame
- Rear-wheel drive (same concept, but the cars were very big, bulky, and heavy)
Except people in the sixties wanted speed! They achieved this with Big Block Motors, which created plenty of horsepower. (Birth of Hotrods, Fink Rat, Flame, and Pin Bar).
Cars in the seventies
- The government sets strict laws for fuel economy and emissions control
- Customers demanded cars with increased fuel economy
- New laws and customer demands started an explosion of automotive engineering ideas and changes in the automotive industry
Changes to comply with requests and laws
- Cars with smaller bodies and smaller engines
- Aerodynamics (increased fuel mileage)
- Car lighters using different materials and designs
- More work-hardened areas created during plate shaping (body lines)
- safety
Interstate highway construction + higher speed limits + more high performance cars = accidents and more
deaths from car accidents
Federal laws have been passed to regulate safety. These laws included:
- Installing seat belts
- Safety glass windshields
- Headrests
- In 1979, the first driver’s side airbag was introduced
- Airbags are mandatory on cars produced after 1990
- Unibody Torque Boxes: Allows for controlled twisting and crushing
- Crash Zones: Made for collapsing during a crash (acts as a shock absorber, absorbing impact)
Modern day cars
- Carbon fiber parts
- Aluminum parts
- More plastic parts
- The high power lasts
- boron steel
- Unibody build
- Building a space frame
- computer
- Hybrid cars
Now they have cars that tell you when you’re lost, where to go, Parallel Park for you.
Conclusion
While modern cars look cheap and unsafe, they are actually designed to crush or crash, with energy being transmitted around the stronger passenger compartment to protect occupants from injury.
There is much more damage to modern cars during crashes than older cars, which gives the perception that they “don’t make it like they used to”. However, in reality, the cars take the sway rather than the passengers.
The lesson is designed to give you a little history, but also to emphasize that just a hammer, a dolly and some wrenches won’t fix today’s cars. We need highly trained people collision repair And auto technicians to fix today’s cars.