Will Government Force You To Junk Your Car?
by
Eric Peters
EricPetersAutos.com
GM – and
the auto industry in general – were accused some 40 years ago
of perpetrating “planned obsolescence” – that is,
deliberately redesigning cars each year, usually in trivial, cosmetic
ways, in order to make last year’s cars seem “old”
– and thus encourage the purchase of the new – and “latest”
thing.
Maybe so. In
fact, probably so. But it was a psychological – or marketing
– effort and not coercive. In a way, it was all rather
innocent. No one forced you to buy a new car – or get
rid of your old one. If your older car still ran well and looked
good (to you) then you could drive it for as long as you liked.
And because the cars of that era were much simpler – and largely
free of government-mandated elaborate (and expensive) equipment
– it was possible for a person with some basic mechanical skills
and the interest necessary to keep an older car going almost indefinitely.
Planned obsolescence
has matured.
Most people
have no idea that modern cars are increasingly designed not merely
to be less-than-stylish after a year or two – but to be throw-aways
after about 8-10 years or so. This is the point at which the average
car’s retail value falls below $10,000 – when the cost
to repair/replace certain components becomes prohibitive relative
to the value of the car itself.
And the best
(well, worst) part is the government will force you to throw
the car away.
Tens of thousands
of otherwise perfectly sound older vehicles, often with many years
of useful service life left in them, are junked every year solely
because the cost to replace a deployed air bag (or bags) is too
high relative to the value of the car itself. A 2002 Toyota Camry,
for example, has an average retail value of around $7,000 right
now. If the owner of such a car is involved in an accident –
not catastrophic, but sufficient to cause both the driver and passenger
side air bags to deploy – the car will invariably be thrown
away. Even if the car only has 70,000 miles on the clock and still
runs great and could be driven for another ten years or more.
Because while
the physical damage to the car’s bodywork might be light –
and fixable for a reasonable sum – the costs associated with
replacing the airbags will not be reasonable, relative to the value
of the car. Often, air bag replacement costs will push the total
repair bill to 40 percent or more of the vehicleÂ’s pre-accident
market value.
This is the
point at which most insurance companies will “total” –
that is, throw away – a vehicle. And it’s a threshold
that’s alarmingly easy to reach – even if most people
are unaware of it.
In the Camry
example, replacing the driver and passenger side air bags –
which also means replacing the entire steering wheel and (usually)
the dashboard – will cost in the neighborhood of $2,500. By
itself – before even factoring in the cost of repairing
body damage – replacing the air bags and associated components
has pushed the repair estimate to the 40 percent threshold. Add
$2,000 for bodywork – which these days is a small sum –
and youÂ’re at 60 percent. And the carÂ’s toast.
Or rather,
itÂ’s toaster fodder.
Think of the
probably millions of cars out there with “book values”
of $10,000 or less. Each one is in peril – every day –
of being junked as a result of modern planned obsolescence.
If your car is worth less than $5,000 itÂ’s not just in peril
of being junked.
It is guaranteed
to be junked if itÂ’s ever involved in an accident that results
in an air bag deployment.
July
13, 2012
Eric Peters
[send him mail] is an automotive
columnist and author of Automotive
Atrocities and Road Hogs (2011). Visit his
website.
Copyright
© 2012 Eric Peters