All cars eventually fail in some way or another. My two previous petrol cars died suddenly and just weren’t economical to repair. I mean that the cost of repairing them was likely to be as much as buying another, newer, second hand car. They were about 15 years old and had done a fair mileage. This idea that you should run a car for 50 years is simply unrealistic unless it’s a classic you hardly ever drive. If it is a classic and you want to save the environment, conversion to electric is an option.
I’m old enough to remember when the Federal government mandated 5MPH bumpers in which such a jolt would cause no damage.
This was changed to 2.5MPH by Ronald Reagan. There is your root cause.
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You think a Fender bender is expensive to fix? Try a Gibson bender. Those things cost a fortune!
(I am not entirely sure what a Fender is outside of a guitar brand)
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A fender is the structure protecting the wheel well of a car. But for some reason it seems to have become synonymous with bumper in recent American usage from what I can tell.
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Thank you! Because I clearly remember being told when I was a kid that the fender on an American car was not the same as a bumper and I was genuinely confused.
More than I am about the difference between a Jaguar and a Jazzmaster. But then I know more about guitars than cars.
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all this computerized stuff makes vehicle ownership less affordable and drives consumer debt, but makes cars measurably safer to drive
“We’re going to start selling a cheaper, less safe model for poor people.” Go ahead, convince any OEM exec that this is a good plan. I’ll wait.
But as much as I’d like to blame PR concerns, I think it’s mostly Baumol that has shaped the trajectory that got us here. Manufacturing is just way cheaper than labor for repair, compared to the past, and that has made it easier to justify design choices that mandate replacement over repair of components. And since most major repairs likely go through insurance, and are rare, the effect on the average car owner is pretty minimal. It’s also possible that on net, the expected impact on cost of ownership is still negative, if the safety improvements reduce expected health care and health effect costs of the incidents that cause the need for repairs.
We just love rock and roll here so much in America, we line our bumpers with guitars! 
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And that’s a beauty!
I may have mentioned my fondness for them once or twice!
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There’s an article in the Graun today about this. It’s also due to insurance companies having sweetheart deals with repair shops who cheerfully pad their prices and drag their heels so replacement car rental bills are higher and all that good stuff. Absolute fuckery by people who should be legislated out of the marketplace
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