Why don't automakers use plastic body panels like the Saturn's any longer?

[Project84]

it's the upper motor mount, located to the left of the valve cover if you're staning in front of the engine... between the valve cover and the coolant resevoir.

$45 at Napa or $5 at junkyard. Sign up on saturnfans.com and learn the How-To, you need to loosen and re-torque a few nuts after you replace the mount. Do a search over there and you'll find everything you need.

[VetteOwner]

Originally Posted by theholycow

I wish the same could be said of my 1980 Buick:

The first 10 or 12 years of its life were spent garaged out of the sun/UV, too.

do you have any pics of the whole car? i dont believe i know what a 1980 Buick looks like(looks smaller than i imagined)

[GasSavers_Erik]

Buick made a little Skyhawk that was the same size as the Chevy Monza

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by VetteOwner

do you have any pics of the whole car? i dont believe i know what a 1980 Buick looks like(looks smaller than i imagined)

It's a Lesabre. It's huge, and I don't know how they fit all that room considering the relatively meager exterior dimensions. The trunk is big enough to park my VW in, as is the engine bay. The interior has pretty much the expected amount of room, but probably not as much as a model ten years older.

The curb weight is a post-1970s-gas-crisis meager 3500 pounds, making it far less dense than a modern car. For being so light, it still rides nicely like a yacht. For having a 1980 technology (hello emissions, nice to meet you) V6 with a messed-up carburetor, it also accelerates like a yacht.

[VetteOwner]

ooh yea thats the car i was imagining, my uncle had and 83 he bought for $300 one time :P

[Lug_Nut]

Originally Posted by Project84

For the Saab/EV1 comment, I've heard nothing about EV1 other than this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EV1

It's GM based, essentially a Saturn.

The drawback of trusting wiki when real information is out there.
http://www.saabhistory.com/2007/06/2...cle-ev-1-1985/
based on the 900 and used steel body panels

My plastic (glass reinforced polyester) bodied 1969 Saab Sonett looks nearly perfect, but the chassis (welded steel panels) needs constant care.
The first Sonett Super Sport (1956) has an aluminum chassis. The next ones were steel. Everyone of that first generation is still (or again) in museum quality. There were only 6 of these model "94" built before the competition class rules were changed and made them obsolete.

[ShadowWorks]

Originally Posted by Lug_Nut

The drawback of trusting wiki when real information is out there.
http://www.saabhistory.com/2007/06/2...cle-ev-1-1985/
based on the 900 and used steel body panels

The EV-1 was actually made by Saab in Sweden, before GM killed that car, it has nothing to do with the Saturn trust me, Wiki gives very biased and reductive information, it has no depth of knowledge at all and it gets edited by every neoconservatives Tom, Dick and Harry.

[ShadowWorks]

Originally Posted by Lug_Nut

The drawback of trusting wiki when real information is out there.
http://www.saabhistory.com/2007/06/2...cle-ev-1-1985/
based on the 900 and used steel body panels

The EV-1 was actually made by Saab in Sweden, before GM killed that car, it has nothing to do with the Saturn trust me, Wiki gives very biased and reductive information, it has no depth of knowledge at all and it gets edited by every neoconservatives Tom, Dick and Harry.

As for plastics not being able to withstand UV that is not true, some plastics have a half life of 500,000 years! the reason some plastics fall apart is economics, cheaper is better, they called it designed obsolescence, they want the car to fall apart so you buy another one with brand loyalty.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by ShadowWorks

they called it designed obsolescence, they want the car to fall apart so you buy another one with brand loyalty.

Their designed obsolescence is a lot more effective on plastic than it is on steel. That's an observation, not a theory. We can talk theory all we want here, but the fact is...the steel they use lasts a lot longer than the plastic they use, or at least it did back in 1980. I suspect that it is different on newer vehicles and also more well-protected by paint.

[trollbait]

Wiki has the Saab EV-1.