Why Cars Have Become Much More Difficult -- And Expensive to Repair


Last weekend, I had to replace a burned out headlight on my daughter's Chevrolet HHR.
I figured this was a do-it-yourself job.

So I went to my local auto-parts store, scored a new halogen bulb, went home, and popped the hood.

Roughly 45 minutes and a few choice words later, I got the job done. In the course of replacing one burned-out bulb,
I used a socket wrench and pliers to partially remove a plastic liner inside the left front wheel well.
I took out about a half dozen fasteners, of two different kinds. Then I had to work my hand through a tangle of wires to
get at the offending bulb, disconnect it, twist it out, and then replace it. I did all this by feel, because I couldn't see my hand,
wedged inside the fender between the half removed plastic liner and the wires and metal around the light.
 
When I was done, I had to toss everything I had been wearing into the wash, since I'd wound up on my back under the
car during the process of detaching and reattaching the fender liner.

Yes, I read the directions in the owners' manual and did what they instructed.
Let's just say the manual understated the degree of difficulty by half.

It turns out amateurs like me aren't the only ones wondering why some of today's vehicles are such bears to repair.
The difficulty of replacing broken parts or restoring vehicles damaged in collisions is a growing concern to the auto
service and collision trades and the insurance industry.

"Vehicles are becoming more and more difficult to repair,"  the collision division for the Automotive Service Association.

In their quest to make cars safer, lighter and more fuel efficient, car makers are using more exotic materials in the bodies
of vehicles, such as high-strength steels, aluminum, steel-plastic sandwiches. That presents a challenge to body repair shops,
because technicians now can't just assume that the metal they are cutting or welding is old-fashioned steel.

Modern vehicles also have more airbags, and more sophisticated electronics under the hood and throughout the body.
The complexity of repairing a badly crashed vehicle has led to a rise in the number of vehicles that are declared total losses
by insurance companies, rather than repaired.

AutoNation Inc., the largest U.S. auto retailer, says that routine repairs can get "pretty serious" given the proliferation of
new technology such as continuously variable transmissions, electric steering or onboard computer networks managing
various functions.

Throw in a hybrid drive system, and things get even more interesting.
Auto service technicians are going back to school to learn how to work safely on hybrid systems.

The concern about repair complexity is spurring efforts by the insurance and repair industries to persuade car makers
to make ease of repair a higher priority.

One group called the Research Council for Automobile Repairs is planning to launch a Web site that will offer vehicle
designers data aimed at encouraging them to make vehicles more repair friendly.

Auto makers, as is often the case, must juggle competing demands. When it's time to change a light bulb or an oil filter,
I wish I had an old-fashioned car where you could open up the hood, and see the driveway through the big spaces between
the body and the engine. But when I go to the fuel pump, or try to find a parking space, I want a car that's light and efficient
-- which means all the bits and pieces need to be very close together under the hood.

The drive to reduce weight by making cars more compact will only get more intense as auto makers strive to achieve the
new 35 miles per gallon fleet average fuel-economy standard.

Still, car makers are responding to the service and insurance industry's pleas.

Toyota Motor Corp. says in an email that Toyota is also designing vehicles with "front crush boxes," that are designed
so they can be unbolted after a collision and replaced. Toyota is also designing headlamps to be more easily replaced.

General Motors Corp., about five years ago, intensified efforts to consider ease of repair during the vehicle-design process,
assigning engineers from the service operation to work alongside vehicle designers and engineers.

GM engineers now can use a virtual hand, wielding a virtual wrench, to test whether a design that exists only in digital form
on a screen will result in a hard time for a mechanic, he says.

The result is that GM is now designing instrument panels so that there are access panels a mechanic, or do-it-yourselfer,
could remove easily to get access to fuses or other components, rather than disassembling the dashboard.

For collision-repair specialists, GM designed its new large pickups so that the frames can be cut in sections so that only
damaged pieces need to be replaced. The same trucks are designed so that a new front end can be installed without
replacing the entire frame of the truck.