As a student of history I think of what it must have been like to see the effects of the Industrial Revolution, the onset of the railroads, cars, airplanes.
I have seen the information revolution up front, from calculators, to PC, to laptops, to cell phones, to smart phones. Not to mention the internet.
With automobiles I have seen them go from steel to plastic, analog to digital.
There are acres of plastic under the hoods of new cars which isn’t very reassuring. In the early 2000s, automakers stepped up the use of injection molded thermoplastic components, which have the advantage of being lighter, more recyclable and cheaper than metal.
In the past two decades automakers have filled their engine bays with plasticized water pumps, oil filter housings, radiators and hoses. Between 2012 to 2021, the average amount of plastic in automobiles increased by 16%, to 411 pounds, according to the American Chemistry Council.
Unfortunately, even the strongest plastics degrade in the daily extremes of heat cycling under the hood. It is only a matter of who pays. In 2021 BMW settled a class-action suit over engine failures related to so-called plastic deterioration of timing chain components. In 2022 Volkswagen Group settled a similar suit involving the use of plastic water pumps.
I want a sedan from the 1970’s with the safety features of today, without the over engineered electronics. Granted with a mechanic that can fix the car without a computer telling them what they need to do, because they really don’t know anything other than replacing modules.