The Dark Wob

I just spent a few minutes reading a bit of this weeks Autocar whilst waiting for my eldest to help me shift stuff in the garden.
The first was Intelligent Speed Limiters but the second was more surprising.
The latest Astra facelift includes grill shutters. So if you have a frontal accident there will now be a more complicated grill to replace and presumably some sort of motor and maybe a sensor mechanism.
So to save 0.001mpg will cost £x in production costs, which the customer will end up paying for somehow, and god knows how much in accident repair costs.
As an aside it'll probably also reduce underbonnet space and complicate things when it gets to its 3rd/4th owner.

Yeah, I'm a Luddite.

Ford, BMW and others have been doing those shutters for a while. All help that last 1% in improving fuel economy and emissions.

I wouldn't worry about the cost of the shutters in a frontal impact, it's the pedestrian frontal airbags/bonnet rams that I would worry about the cost in replacing!

It was more that they've now reached the Astra in order to meet the EU 2021(?) targets I guess and minimize any fines. I take your point about the bonnets etc.. As an aside about airbags my 36,000 mile Galaxy was written off as the quote to replace the water damaged airbags and part of a loom was about £4,500 for parts alone.

To me the irony is that more and more cars will be written off as uneconomical to repair, some due to efforts to reduce emissions.

We've had too much tech in cars for years, most designs after the late 90s have endless pointless shite that could just be binned with no detrimental effects.

My Hyundai is a middle of the range model but has radar guided smart cruise,active grill shutters,active lane keeping and numerous other shite.

bub2006 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:43 am My Hyundai is a middle of the range model but has radar guided smart cruise,active grill shutters,active lane keeping and numerous other shite.

All that money spent on unnecessary crap and they couldn't afford a hose clip!

bub2006 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:43 am My Hyundai is a middle of the range model but has radar guided smart cruise,active grill shutters,active lane keeping and numerous other shite.

Damn thing keeps stalling when driven too...

I know but at least it restarts

DodgeRover wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:51 am

bub2006 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:43 am My Hyundai is a middle of the range model but has radar guided smart cruise,active grill shutters,active lane keeping and numerous other shite.

All that money spent on unnecessary crap and they couldn't afford a hose clip!

Also applies to the derps who worked on my SVX. Didn't do the bottom hose clip up. Twats.

Vastly too much. The irony is that there's many many areas of life which could use a good dollop of tech.
Strange that they are areas such as housing and infrastructure which our superiors in the civil service wouldn't wish to legislate or tax in the manner that they are happy to flog the motorist.