Was the perfect car outlawed?

Heard a rumor that some years ago, an ambitious engineer created a car out of more resilient materials than those commonly used. He predicted with normal use, parts would not wear out for ten or more years and it should run for several hundred thousand miles. The government showed up on his doorstep, more or less said “no way”, confiscated the plans, and forbade him from ever producing such a model to prevent the impact it would have on the auto industry. Can anyone confirm this or provide any details?

Which government? U.S.? Japan? Germany?

Can’t confirm or deny this one, but it points in the same direction of the person who invented the carb that allowed an engine to get 200mpg. False, false and false. Any automotive company that could get their hands on that tech would dominate the market. Same with this one. I don’t have time, but possibly a trip to Snopes might provide some insight on this one.

If it’s outlawed, there must be a specific law which outlaws it. If no such law can be found, it isn’t outlawed and the story is nonsense.

The story is plain silly. If such a design existed, US car makers could produce it and make a killing exporting it.

Apart from the occasional lemon, that sounds like any car.

Right. Which leads me to believe this is an old legend (from the 1970s or earlier) which hasn’t been updated. Like how the legend of the 200mpg carburetor only makes sense if your average car actually uses a carburetor, which hasn’t been true for a while now.

Doesn’t pass the sniff test. Unless they locked up or killed the inventor, you’d have heard from him.

Where would a question like this ever come from? Who would imagine that one person would have such a plan and it would be small enough to confiscate on the spot? It takes a mountain of documentation to build a vehicle. Who would this powerful individual be who could come to your door and turn back such a dream in one visit? Why would there never be any leaks of parts of the plan. Could there be such a thing as a perfect car? Where on earth would the secret testing of all the related components have been done? Did the inventor simply die or be forced to work for Chrysler building the anti-car?

Different parts of a typical car are made from different materials, and wear out for different reasons. (And some cars are made of different materials.) There’s no way a single improvement in material science can make a dramatic difference in the overall durability of a car.

Well, “Dad” Garrett and his son C.H. invented a car 77 years ago that ran on water.

“He claimed instant starts in any weather, no fire hazards, cooler operation and plenty of power and speed. The car was not marketed, and no one seems to know its ultimate destiny.”

So why haven’t we all been driving water-powered cars? There’s something fishy here.

“Both Garretts died a number of years ago.”

:eek:

Checker made the most heavy duty cars ever produced. Those cabs easily clocked 750,000 miles or more. I’ve heard most of the parts were either Ford or Chevy OEM.

Checker briefly went into the consumer market in the 1960’s with the Superba and Marathon.

Checker’s heavy duty design never met modern gas mileage standards. They went bankrupt in the 80’s.

In terms of lifespan and miles driven Checker was nearly perfect. They are still highly prized and collectable.
Restored Checker Marathon
http://www.histomobile.com/histomob/internet/266/575001.jpg

Same Urban Legend I’ve heard about the guy who invented the car that ran on water. He had to go into hiding bla bla bla.

Yeah, but could it fly?
I’m still looking forward to shipstones. If the electric car industry had something like that to power them, then that would be neat. That Heinleinian idea is actually related to the OP’s Q, too. As pointed out above by obbn, any person or company with such a deal would be in a very powerful position. Like the Moon Landing Hoax people, these conspiracy theories fall down flat when any rational thought is applied.

YMMV, and apologies for getting all GD in a GQ thread.

Whenever people say that conspiracy theories are new and exist because of the Internet, send them to this thread. The notion that government was out to get the little guy by protecting big business goes back a century or more in this form. The Depression spawned many of them. Great things that could make life wonderful were always being suppressed. Why? There had to be some explanation for how awful life was. And it’s always easier to find one actor to blame than to understand that global structural forces larger than any government or business or political party is the real cause.

“The magic car that we could have, if” is a great way to vent anger and bitterness. But if you have to ask if it’s actually true…

Funnily-enough I invented a pill that could increase the size of a man’s wang in minutes.

But then a guy in a dark suit and fedora came to my door. He looked down and initially complimented me on my work. But then he explained that feelings of inadequacy have been a spur for American progress for decades. And that the amount of junk mail it creates has driven ever faster broadband technology.

I had to do what was right for my country and conspiracy-theorists everywhere.

even the most rudimentary understanding of thermodynamics would prevent someone from believing that rumor.

You wrapped your enourmous wang around his neck and chocked him to death?

Well, that would be the problem right there.

My father definitely believed in the 200MPG carb story and no, he didn’t understand anything about thermodynamics. In fact, when my sister’s father-in-law (who was an automotive engineer at the time) attempted to explain the problem to him my father just dismissed him as being “blinded by science”.

She’s poetry in motion.