smarquez: In the 23 years I have driven my current vehicle, it has only left me stranded once, and that was recently when the transmission gave out at 235,000 miles. I’ve had many, many vehicles over the years, the worst of which was a 1999 Jaguar XJ8 that regularly went into limp mode due to shoddy engineering, electrical issues and mechanical issues. I couldn’t get rid of that POS fast enough. Another extremely poor vehicle I had was a 1992 Infinity Q45, which was in the shop more often than not, plagued with both electrical and mechanical problems. You may not have had any electrical problems with your vehicles, but I assure you that they are a big problem in the automotive industry.
I believe you’re reading too much into my statements. I never once said that I’d prefer to be in a severe crash in a 50’s or 60’s vehicle. In fact, I said just the opposite in post #13360978 on page 3 of this thread. The main point of my post was that government/EPA regulations have done much to harm the automotive industry, particularly with the egregious mileage (CAFÉ) standards, which have become more and more ridiculous over the last decades. 0bammy’s CAFÉ standard of 50 MPG by 2025 was outrageous. These regs have become more and more onerous for manufacturers to meet and have played a significant role in the continual rising cost of cars to an average of $35,000 today, which makes purchasing a new vehicle unaffordable for many Americans. Additionally, manufacturers have had to scramble to meet these regulations and one of the main ways they accomplish this is to shave as much weight as possible off the vehicles they manufacture. One result of lighter and lighter vehicles is that they are not nearly as crash-worthy as older cars and as an example of what I mean by the phrase “older cars,” personally, I would much rather be in an accident in a 1994 Mercedes E class than a 2018 Ford Focus, Chevy Cruze, Honda Fit, or any number of other small to mid-sized modern vehicles. The said E class is an extremely safe vehicle and is engineered to a high standard and has all the safety equipment you mentioned, which includes crumple zones, side impact door beams, collapsible steering column, air bags, etc. Additionally, in an effort to meet these governmental regulations, manufacturers rely heavily on computer controlled nonsense such as cylinder deactivation and complete engine deactivation, which increases wear exponentially. Smaller engines, turbo chargers, and hybrids, which utilize TWO modes of propulsion, etc. are other tactics for meeting these regs. It’s all about increasing control over the population and pushing us into products we do not want. Americans don’t want and are not interested in the anti-car agenda of liberals and commies, nor do they want the government telling them what kind of cars and trucks they can purchase, which is clearly unconstitutional, just as the ACA was and is.
Regarding diesel emission controls, you are certainly correct that an owner should not fully delete one during the warranty period, but the fact remains that the vast majority of the problems with late model diesel trucks is related to all the EPA mandated emission controls on these vehicles. Once the warranty period expires, fully deleting all that crap results in increased mileage, increased performance and increased reliability. I believe many would agree that they would not want a truck that leaves them stranded or goes into limp mode due to emission-related crap - a truck is less than useless under such circumstances, and can, in fact, be extremely dangerous if it suddenly goes into limp mode at speed on the highway. The former Pant-Load-in-Chief was a big proponent of electric vehicles b/c they are viewed as clean – what a crock! No one seems to realize that electric vehicles require ELECTRICITY that is generated mainly by coal-fired plants, not to mention the incredible pollution produced by the manufacture of millions of lithium batteries required to power electric vehicles and the environmental nightmare which results from their disposal. What about the environmental issues caused by the mining of lithium and rare earth minerals – I guess that one doesn’t matter since most of it occurs in China and Afghanistan – two countries that are openly hostile to the US. What about trading our newfound energy independence for almost complete reliance on these batteries and rare earth minerals from countries hostile to the US – see any parallels to OPEC?
Well said, sir.
As the OP, I'm not advocating going back to less safe vehicles. But I'd we could take today's more refined engines (the manufacturing tolerances are so precise these days that there's really no break-in required) and strip all the emission control bullsheet off them, along with the myriad of other computer controlled mess on the automobiles we'd have a good vehicle that anyone could work on and not just someone with a computer science degree.
