Why do modern cars look/feel plastic-y?

[homesick345]

It's even more obvious in super cars ! They don't have that metal look/feel.

They really seem like plastic or some material when you touch them too

 

[dented]

It keeps them lighter to get better fuel mileage.

 

[notmyusualuserid]

Why would you want something that is heavy and prone to rust over a durable plastic?

 

[buster poser]

You're gonna want to sit down before i tell you what they've used for Corvette bodies for literally 70 years

I don't understand this criticism anyhow. "Super" cars or exotics have been paneled largely in carbon fiber/composites for years and with good reason; it's a superior material that doesn't look any different than steel or aluminum with paint on it. I have a new Mazda and it has the black plastic stuff common on a lot of ute-ish cars around the wheel arches/running boards, but it's metal everywhere else and looks/feels like it... not that I feel its panels very often.

Do you touch your cars' exterior a lot? A car's feel to me is determined by its behavior on the road... and as a whole, cars feel ten times more solid than they did 30 years ago when this kind of thin, rickety trash was common. Doors that clacked shut versus the nice "whoomp" you get in a solidly built car.

 

[Peegoo]

A lot of the modern 'supercars' have traded their sleek, sculpted automotive style for The Transformers look. Same goes for virtually all battery-powered tools.

They're all toys.

I think it's designed to appeal to the adult buyer that grew up watching He-Man and playing with Transformers dolls.

 

[alexamadrid]

Q: Why do modern cars look/feel plastic-y?

A: Cuz they're made of plastic?

 

[Obsessed]

Plastic parts are very inexpensive to make, quick and easy to assemble, safer in crash tests and very light to help increase fuel milage. No going back.

Of course I have an ‘82 CJ-7 and an ‘82 Harley. Not a speck of plastic in either, except for a foam pad on the Jeep dash that I removed.

Signed, former plastic design engineer.

 

[imwjl]

It's even more obvious in super cars ! They don't have that metal look/feel.

They really seem like plastic or some material when you touch them too

With a 1930 Ford still in the family as well as late model German and Japanese makes, it's easy to know why. There's no need to have or carry rope seal and metal polishing compound with the new ones.

My wife's German car disguises the plastic clutch pedal as stainless steel. The engine has plastic same time it has turbo boost. It's a manual transmission AWD station wagon that matches or outperforms what used to be muscle and sports car data.

 

[buster poser]

A lot of the modern 'supercars' have traded their sleek, sculpted automotive style for The Transformers look. Same goes for virtually all battery-powered tools.

They're all toys.

I think it's designed to appeal to the adult buyer that grew up watching He-Man and playing with Transformers dolls.

I hate the new C8, but I think you're right here. A lot of its styling cues and those on other performance cars are actually functional or race-bred and the makers have figured out that people will tolerate it. The original Audi R8 with that big sidepanel was one of the first (they wisely bailed that on the roadster and then the coupe).

As a lifelong 911 guy, have to say I do really detest the new GT3RS and for reasons entirely related to styling. It's nice that is has 7 tons of downforce or whatever but good lord look at it.

 

[Boreas]

My old Saturn LW300 had plastic fenders, doors, and such. Of course, the first week I had it, I managed to dent one of the few metal panels when trying to put my canoe on the roof. I guess Saturn was ahead of their time. I loved mine. I leased it, then bought it.

 

[imwjl]

Plastic parts are very inexpensive to make, quick and easy to assemble, safer in crash tests and very light to help increase fuel milage. No going back.

Of course I have an ‘82 CJ-7 and an ‘82 Harley. Not a speck of plastic in either, except for a foam pad on the Jeep dash that I removed.

Signed, former plastic design engineer.

Some friends and people I do volunteer work are the engineering department for a major bicycle maker and they've worked in automotive, aerospace and medical fields too. It is a big smile when they know or can approximate how much labor and materials cost differences there are if you go from injection molded and hydroformed AL to composite and/or ti AL3 2.5V or ti AL6 4V.

One thing that might satisfy some on this topic is what people think is Tesla's giga casting is/was an Italian firm's advances in die casting AL alloys vs softer alloys traditionally used in die casting plus their advances in size and scale. Even if a car looks like plastic on the outside, I've read all the major makers have and are moving to that die casting of AL.

 

[Peegoo]

The intake manifold on my Dodge Challenger is all plastic. It makes my Old Guy nerves twitch in a bad way when I think about it.

When I'm not thinking about it, it works perfectly fine.

And now that I think about it, even when I'm thinking about it it works perfectly fine.

 

[Boreas]

What I don't like about plastics is that most are not recyclable, or do not GET recycled. All that plastic goes somewhere and does not decompose - just gets smaller. At least rusty steel can be crushed and recycled.

 

[Frodebro]

My old Saturn LW300 had plastic fenders, doors, and such. Of course, the first week I had it, I managed to dent one of the few metal panels when trying to put my canoe on the roof. I guess Saturn was ahead of their time. I loved mine. I leased it, then bought it.

Saturns were actually polymer, not plastic. And yes, the roofs on them were metal and part of the safety cage.

 

[Killing Floor]

Kids today aren’t interested in heavy, rusty, unreliable or inefficient cars. Especially underperforming giant ones.

 

[Boreas]

Saturns were actually polymer, not plastic. And yes, the roofs on them were metal and part of the safety cage.

Well, it felt and acted like plastic. I would suspect many modern cars also contain polymers as well as plastics. To the lay person, there isn't much of a distinction.

 

[notmyusualuserid]

Saturns were actually polymer, not plastic. And yes, the roofs on them were metal and part of the safety cage.

Synthetic polymers are plastics.

 

[Boreas]

Kids today aren’t interested in heavy, rusty, unreliable or inefficient cars. Especially underperforming giant ones.

Unfortunately, that depends where they live and their finances. Kids around me tend to buy rusty trucks, add large tires (killing efficiency), remove the exhausts, and drive them until they die (the cars, not the kids). Such is rural America.

 

[Telekat 100]

And why do so many look like they were designed by the same people who also design running shoes? (i.e. Ugly.)

Partly function, partly cost-savings, partly contemporary aesthetics.

I do get the OP's point. Personally, I think a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO is way more attractive than the modern offerings. But I won't be buying either at any point in my life so it's just my random opinion.

 

[Obsessed]

Some friends and people I do volunteer work are the engineering department for a major bicycle maker and they've worked in automotive, aerospace and medical fields too. It is a big smile when they know or can approximate how much labor and materials cost differences there are if you go from injection molded and hydroformed AL to composite and/or ti AL3 2.5V or ti AL6 4V.

One thing that might satisfy some on this topic is what people think is Tesla's giga casting is/was an Italian firm's advances in die casting AL alloys vs softer alloys traditionally used in die casting plus their advances in size and scale. Even if a car looks like plastic on the outside, I've read all the major makers have and are moving to that die casting of AL.

Yup, it has been a material/process frenzy in the design engineering field since the early 1980s. A fun career for me with such a smorgasbord to select from during design phases. Of course the massive consumer world is what makes this kind of development pay off financially at scale eventually. Additionally, material science has made leaps and bounds over the last half century.

I’ll stay off the coinciding monstrously damaging energy use consequences soapbox, but it must be noted.