Quote:
Originally Posted by VaSteve
Please explain as they are able to change designs every two years. Need to reconfigure equipment to do that. The wheel installer robot certainly could install a wheel on a different kind of car...maybe not build a solar panel or a wind turbine....
Yes, good point, but if no (or significantly less) new cars were being produced there would be SOME market for stuff that you couldn't get. I guess it would a REALLY long time to need certain parts that you couldn't get off a parts car.
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Read for example
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/02/09/360102/index.htm
http://www.greensburgdailynews.com/honda/local_story_051095915.html
Multiple car models, and the assembly line to make them, and the logistics system supporting the assembly line, are designed
together. The bodies are designed so that the same set of robots can fit and weld them together, the robots are designed to use particular pins and holding points common to all the bodies, etc. To make Camrys or Accords in a GM plant, Toyota or Honda would essentially have to tear out and discard most of the GM line and equipment. Unless the GM robots/equipment happened to be the same as the Toyota robots, which seems unlikely.
I guess that a fraction of one percent of the parts in a new car ever get replaced. So that supports how big of a parts industry - a fraction of one percent of today's . . . gonna be a bummer to be the company that makes dashboard assemblies, firewalls, floorpans, waiting for the 1 whacko a year who decides to replace the dashboard, firewall, or floorpan on their Malibu . . .