Writing off nearly new cars can't be green. In an ideal world, manufacturers would provide a new panelled & painted and glazed shell that everything else could be refitted to. Obviously car makers have no incentive to do this because they want to sell complete cars. But the cost of writing off in bourne by us all in rising insurance costs.
Cars are now like everything else - progress is so fast that last years technology is obsolete this year.
Thats unfair. In the case of Lotus you can buy a complete new ally frame for it. The problem is that the cost of stripping the old car and re-assembling onto the new frame is more than the end car is worth by some margin. That isnt the case with an Aero and there was just such an example a little while back where a damaged Aero was rebuilt onto a new ally structure,
Instead the problem is that with glued and rivetted ally structures you cannot pull them back straight as you can with welded steel so its either very light repairs or bin it. The irony being, these ally structures are no lighter than steel ones. They are being used because the cost of press tooling for steel bodies is only viable in the sort of volume that Porsche do.
One final comment. All aluminium Ferraris do seem to get bashed back straight after a prang. Obviously the cost makes this viable but I also wonder if its easier to do because the bodies are welded not glued and rivetted. Maybe that allows them to be pulled straight. Certainly it will allow panels to be cut out and replace panels welded in.
All about money in the end.
