In tune with the times, automakers are making their vehicles easier to recycle. But is this effort making the vehicles less durable? Look at the designs Toyota put into the Prius to make it easy to dismantle for recycling (to comply with the Japanese recyclability laws). Wiring connections that come loose when you pull on them? Soundproofing held in place with a few “ultrasonic spot welds” instead of glue? Reading lights secured with bent metal clips instead of screws? Instrument panels made so they can be pulled out easily? With design features like this you have to wonder about the vehicles’ durability and wonder what other manufactures are doing—-especially when you combine “easy to disassemble” with the beancounters’ mantra of “cheap to build.”
I have a feeling that using spring tabs instead of screws will allow parts to rattle as the car ages. The question is when. Nobody complains about squeaks and rattles from a ten year old car, but if it rattles after two years, well then Toyota may have problems.
Leave it to Toyota to make an expensive car even cheaper to build. It’s no secret they have had lowest build cost per unit than anyone. I can’t believe people still buy their garbage, lost me as a customer forever in ’85
I’m sure that future car thieves/chop shop operators will appreciate the “easy to disassemble” features.
A lot of this sounds like DFM/DFA/cost savings measures being dual-marketed as green steps. Toyota was never one to skimp on the green hype.
<i>Nobody complains about squeaks and rattles from a ten year old car,</i>
Speak for yourself – a 10 year old car with 120k shouldn’t squeak or rattle. If it does it’s because the engineers didnt’ give the test mule enough time on the shake table.
Europe has had strong recycling laws like this for over ten years, and I’ve never heard about it being an issue. Well designed fasteners like this can work fine.
Well-designed fasteners, I would think, can make a car nicer to own past the 10-year selling-off date. If you can pull off the door trim without destroying it, then it’s much easier and cheaper to replace the odd knackered window motor. Glue probably ages less well than spot welds, too.
I say, kudos to any company that actually thinks about how a given car would be a decade after production.
Honestly, as someone who woks in the automotive manufacturing industry, this is pretty standard for the transplants (I can’t speak too much to the domestics). Welding is ALWAYS the better option over glue, especially for sound barriers mostly because of cost of both materials and efficiency of process. As for clips over screws, Honda has been doing this for years (anyone who has replaced a cd player in a Civic knows what I’m talking about) and I’ve noticed no more squeaks or rattles because of it.
Also remember a lot of these “easy” to remove parts are advantageous not just becuase of the recycle factor but because of the repair factor. Every part put into a car needs to be thought about in the terms or manufacturing and demanufacturing both for repairs at the plant and also at the dealers. If you can just pull apart and wire and replace only the damaged section instead of the entire wire that is savings for the OEM.
So it may suprise you to see these things in cars but remember there are other reasons for them besides their easy to recycle attribute.
Automobiles are actually the most recycled product on earth, and have been for years.
Greenies take note.
I agree with Contrarian and briancataldi. A lot of product manufacturers pushing world-class techniques have been trending toward elimination of fasteners. Actually, a metal clip would probably squeak/rattle *less* over time than a screw if they were holding up a piece of plastic. Fasteners have to be tight to prevent rattles and plastic will deform/creep and cause the joint to lose clamp load, allowing vibration. The metal clips have more room to creep without losing much preload.
Clips can work well depending on design. The heater core housing on my 1967 Barracuda was clipped together, but there was no way to remove the clips on the top of the housing. I removed the ones on the bottom and sides and just yanked until the part came loose. Of course there was no way to replace them either. Well, I could have removed the entire instrument panel, I suppose….
I have to agree that easier to dismantle also makes a car easier to repair.
Ultrasonic welding probably costs less, is more consistent, has a faster TTC, and has less prep reqs (nothing needs to stick, can weld dirty parts). Plus, it’s a pretty cool process, and the bond is as strong as it gets.
Toyota have spent hugely on material research and assembly methods, most of which have been making appearances in models for at least 20+ years.
Prius pulls them all together to some extent I guess, but durability is the least of your worries with a Toyota. Maybe that’s why they’re the leader everyone likes to hate.
durability is the least of your worries with a Toyota
Well, for five or six years anyway, until your engine seizes or your frame rots out.
My Nissan minivan had reading lights that were held on with bent clips most of the time. The rest of the time they were held on by their own wires and/or the forehead of the person sitting under them. But I digress.
Making cars more recyclable sounds great, but in reality it is just a way of appeasing guilty minds in a wasteful society. A true tree hugger would demand a car that lasts 40 years, even if it consumed a little extra fuel and required a second mortgage. It’s a helluva lot more earth-friendly than making a new car over and over again just for the sake of fresh styling and incremental improvements in efficiency.
Nonsense.
Nonsense?
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/tires-auto-parts/car-maintenance/engine-sludge/overview/index.htm
http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f1200e2
My bad… PeteMoran, I attributed your comment to the wrong post and could not get it removed. My reply deals with the subject of Toyota durability issues.
As for my assertion about the 40-year car being “nonsense”, I’m not sure how to reply. Pshaw? The converse argument – that making several recyclable cars in succession is more eco-friendly than making one durable car – seems to be the one that needs some ‘splainin.
What’s new about this? I put a stereo in my ’98 F-150 with a Crutchfield kit and it’s all clips clips clips holding on the various dash/door/corner panels.