What New Car Is Headed For The Crusher?
You hate to see it, but some recent models are already doomed.
While some cars live long lives as collectibles, others are doomed to the scrap heap. This might sound harsh, but some new cars are just dead on arrival. There are some cars that somehow made it onto lots, despite having big faults of some form or another and they're probably going to end in a junkyard or worse. What new model do you think is headed for the crusher?
Is it a car that's failed to make even a small dent in its segment, or do you think it's a so-called compliance car that's only around for a carmaker to skirt new rules around emissions. People have made that claim about Mazda's MX-30, which I think is an unfair reading. It's more like an entry-level EV that's priced wrong. It's high price and low availability could be its doom.
Or could it be another BEV, like the Chevy Bolt? The defective cells in the Bolt's batteries and the fires these caused have been a big, expensive headache for GM. The Bolt recalls have marred what is otherwise a good electric car, and it's too early to tell if the Bolt will shake it off. The American carmaker might not think twice about sending an EV to the crusher. It's done it before!
Or is it something more like the Toyota Mirai? It's sad to say, but the future of hydrogen fuel in America isn't looking great. It's especially sad because the second-generation Mirai is actually good-looking, and it's great to drive, too. When I got the chance to drive one in Texas (I'm unsure how Toyota refuels these!) I thought it was a perfectly good car, let down only by the lack of hydrogen infrastructure. I don't see that infra booming anytime soon, at least not for passenger cars.
The cars I've suggested are EVs of some sort, so I'd hope that before these cars were marched off, they'd be harvested for battery metals and other usable EV parts. Of course, a new car headed for the crusher could easily be a combustion model. It's really just any car that's headed for an ignominious end, atop a scrap heap somewhere. What do you think? What new car is headed for the crusher?