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Great, now we have disposable automobiles.
It will reduce costs for toyota.
I doubt the consumers will see any savings.
C level executives will have big fat bonuses tho
As mentioned in another thread, there is a paintless dent repair video on YT of a fix done to the corner of a Rivian rear bumper
The owner claimed that he was quoted $41K. To do the work, they would need to cut the body all the way up to the front of the roof
The PDR fix was close to perfect in this case
link pls?
Enshitification has infected Toyota. What a shame.
Just another brand I can start avoiding.
These cast bodies will be used in the 2026 EV’s, so not really a massive issue yet. Wait and see…
Corporate execs: How can we force people into even more debt so we can have even more money than we’ll ever need or spend?
If you have a large cast part you could do the same thing as you do with a frame or body panel now. As long as there’s a replacement cast part ready, it is lots of work in some cases, so it’s less “impossible to repair” and more accurately “cost prohibitive to repair”
Impossible seems a bit dramatic. Cost prohibitive is more better
Has anyone come up with a guess on the cost of swapping out an entire cast body section vs replacing or refurbishing the parts that would be there without the cast?
Toyota has fallen, billions must ride horses
Guess I won’t be sticking with Toyota when my Prius finally craps out. Too bad. It’s a great car.
Gigacasting saves car companies money, it doesn’t save car owners money. For the manufacturer it reduces their bill of materials and time take to assemble a vehicle. They might save a couple of hundred bucks. Possibly.
For the owner, it increases the risk that a small collision runs a fracture along the body of their car which is then basically impossible to repair and the entire vehicle is a writeoff. Castings could potentially have sacrificial points where some kinds of damage could be ground off and replaced with stamped metal but even if that were so, it’s still less repairable than if the entire frame of the car were assembled of stamped metal.
It’s more than a couple hundred dollars. Production time will drop from 10 to 5 hours per car. The tooling and multiple parts eliminated from large casts will save thousands.
I doubt it is thousands since most plants are automated, but even assuming it were, it’s the consumer who suffers when their car is basically disposable after a crash.
If they were only saving 1% on costs I doubt they’d risk the bad reputation 10% makes it more appetizing.
They’ll risk their reputation for much less than you might think. Tesla are getting rid of physical controls to save a few bucks even though it has a serious impact on usability and safety. E.g. The new model 3 will remove indicator stalks and put buttons on the wheel making it all but impossible to safely and legally traverse roundabouts. I reckon there will be huge backlash on this especially in the UK and Europe.
this is just more outsourcing the costs onto the public and privatizing the profits for short term gain, they’re hoping the entire industry folds in on this but I am absolutely not buying a car where some asshole bumping into my parked car will result in me having to replace the whole front third.
Good luck getting comprehensive car insurance.
What will EU do?
Coz they gptta do something at some point.
All according to kaikaku
