Petrol ban now 2030

[Tony Griffiths]

It's interesting to reflect on how vehicle technology has advanced since 1900 due to a combination of market-led competition and government regulations. In the 1960s* and 1970s flyweight hatchbacks with vast performance - but few safety features - killed hundreds of thousands every year across the world. Seat belts (thanks to Volvo who refused to patent the cross-lap system), air-bags, crumple zones, anti-side-intrusion bars, superior rustproofing, better tyres, etc. have made things so much safer. Cars now weighing twice as much as the same models of 30 years ago yet are more economical, comfortable and with better road-holding. After five years they are no longer the rusted-through-death-trap-as rotten-as-a-pear Mk.1 Ford-Escort and continue to survive crashes just as well into old age as when new. Although these developments are all most welcome, has something been missed, or deliberately excluded - and might this be 'longevity'? Could designers make a 'lifetime' car or truck that could last, say, 50 years without major work? Or would that be the death of motor manufacturing and fashion-led consumerism - and lead to a communist-style "Trabant situation"?
*The highest UK deaths-on-the-road figure in peacetime was 7,985 in 1966.

[Denis Sweeney]

Forgive me if my memory is playing tricks with me but I am pretty damn sure I recall many years ago an independent fellow invented and patented a rubber formula that would produce an “everlasting” tyre, his patent was immediately bought out for a suitable sum by one of the giants of the time, Dunlop’s, Goodyear’s etc and the formula quietly filed away, never to be seen again.........

Denis S

[Charles P]

Kept in storage at Area 51 along with the everlasting match, cure for cancer and the skeletons of aliens?

[Alan]

Probably an urban myth, but it is true that tyre manufacturers sell their product very cheaply to car companies to get them as original fit. Then overcharge us for the replacements.

[Tony Griffiths]

Probably an urban myth, but it is true that tyre manufacturers sell their product very cheaply to car companies to get them as original fit. Then overcharge us for the replacements.

My local garage owner - a very knowledgeable chap with a wealth of experience of modern cars and their foibles - was telling me last year that some customers insist on having replacement tyres identical to those on their car when new. He always advises them not to expect the same mileage and, while their originals might manage have run to 35,000 + miles, the new ones will struggle to make it past 20,000. And he's right, the two new sets I've had over the past few years have been nowhere near as long-lasting as the originals. I wonder why?
I recall an article in one of the early editions of "Car" magazine where they exposed a tyre maker for supplying special, very low-specification "One-star" tyres to Ford at a ludicrously low cost - and then charged retail customers considerably more. The tyre company objected and wrote saying that they were withdrawing advertising - "Car" just published their letter as confirmation of their original story.

[Alan]

When you buy your new Audi A3 (other car models are available) it’s 205/55HR16 tyres have likely been developed to suit the handling characteristic of that particular model. I know this because it’s what I did for a living for 20 years last century. It still goes on. When they wear out what you replace them with is a tyre of the same size developed by the tyre company to be cheap to manufacture. It’s likely designed to wear out quick too because they want to sell more of them. The thing to do is to buy your tyres not from quickfit but from your car main dealer. It’s expensive but you should get original fit tyres.