- Joined
- Jun 8, 2022
- Messages
- 5,570
Value engineering is a thing in every industry. They invent something - then spend twice as much effort trying to make it cheaper.
Most of the lightening / cheapening is integrated with improving Cafe ratings. If not for Cafe, for example we would still have equally crappy transmissions, but they would still be 3 speeds.
The peak era for cars I am sure is 1996 to 2008 Design window - so they may extend slightly in either direction from that window for production possibly - model dependent. In 1996 OBD 2 and hence full closed loop control was mandates. In 2008 the accelerated Cafe standards kicked in so things got exponentially lighter and less robust. If you have a well maintained vehicle from that period - keep it. Its not getting any better.
Most of the lightening / cheapening is integrated with improving Cafe ratings. If not for Cafe, for example we would still have equally crappy transmissions, but they would still be 3 speeds.
The peak era for cars I am sure is 1996 to 2008 Design window - so they may extend slightly in either direction from that window for production possibly - model dependent. In 1996 OBD 2 and hence full closed loop control was mandates. In 2008 the accelerated Cafe standards kicked in so things got exponentially lighter and less robust. If you have a well maintained vehicle from that period - keep it. Its not getting any better.