King for a day

ProDarwin said:

Adding to my earlier list:

1. Manufacturer must make service parts original spec or better for 30 years minimum.
2. Service part markup is restricted to X% of cost.  Not sure how to define this, but I'm tired of some service parts being obscenely expensive.  No $5000 headlights, no $1500 catalytic converters 

Possibly the biggest decree of them all:

1. Manufacturer must have a recycling program for vehicles it produces and use them in a cradle to cradle operation.  Requirements here would start soft and increase over time.

Donebrokeit said:

All headlight bulbs and other bulbs (fog light bulbs are excluded) shall be easy to replace  in the parking lot  of any gas station without any tools.

 

King Donebrokeit. 

I like this one.  I'd even settle for requiring a screwdriver.

slowbird said:

Make big long hood cars again.

The thing is, long hood does not mean easy to service.

Long hood really does not mean easy service. Witness Jaguars.  The hood starts at the headlights or in the case of the XKE ahead of the head lights and nearly any serious work requires removal. 

secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:

I would impose a momentum limit instead of a speed limit.  Momentum = mass * velocity^2. 

Haha.  Needs some modification, otherwise the range of limits is crazy.  UPS truck going down my street a 10m/s (22mph) = 500,000kgm/s  Sportbike with rider would have a speed limit of 49m/s (110mph)

Simple: I'd decree that the automotive industry as a whole make available again parts for classics and neo classics that have long since been NLA. And they have to be of superior quality and reasonably priced. Need a new windshield for your Alfa 164? Consider it done. ABS pump for late 80s/ early 90s GM? Here's five. Rear calipers for your 70s Imperial? Gladly.

And since I am the ruler of this fine land, I'll gladly support them in this money-losing endeavor if it means we can keep classics going longer. I don't need 17 golden toilets, I suppose.

When I am automotive king in this day and age where EVERY vehicle had Bluetooth, it will not only be acceptable but encouraged to pit drivers physically holding their phones off the road, for the safety of everyone else.

I will also decree that cyclists who think lights don't matter to them because they're on bikes will have to pay for the damage they cause to cars and trucks who do actually stop and go by the light. 

I would go at a slightly different angle...

CAFE laws to be tweaked so as to bring lighter cars back into the fold and decrease the breaks for crossover suvs. Part of the reason behind their popularity is that they got fuel economy breaks that made them a better deal to meet the regs than a standard car (read - they are currently allowed to drink a good bit more gas than a passenger car). Engines today are AMAZING, we are just lugging them down with more and more weight. Keep the laws aimed at increasing volumetric efficiency going in some forms, but check the weight growth. 

Laws aimed at reducing the sheer size of trucks and SUVs. (I'm sorry, but a pickup truck bed from the factory at 5 foot off the ground is ABSURD. Bring back smaller pickups, we can make them pretty much just as capable while being smaller and lower. (though I guess some people will have problems compensating for personal anatomical failings...)

Enact laws in order to make a certain percentage of cars sold more rebuildable through modularity. Make cars less of a disposable commodity and more of a send off for refurbishment item. If you make common designed electronics modules that can be replaced and updated more easially. Common engine dimensions and mounting. Perhaps, for appliance type road cars, common mount suspension subframe points.  Remember how the old beetle could swap an engine in 30 minutes? More like that.  Suspension wearing out?  Shop can swap the whole subframe for a refurbished unit at an exchange price for your worn but rebuildable unit in a short period of time.  Common design regs for electric car battery packs.  More common regs for seats and interior components, so they are swappable. This meets some green objectives as the longer vehicle life means less vechicles made from scratch.  The certain percentage bit is to allow for halo cars and sports cars to still do their own thing, just owners know what they are getting into. 

BUMPER HEIGHTS. part of the pickup truck size reduction act, make it so sports cars arent at risk of underriding every soccer mom mobile. 

RevRico said:

I will also decree that cyclists who think lights don't matter to them because they're on bikes will have to pay for the damage they cause to cars and trucks who do actually stop and go by the light. 

Hitting a nerve here.  When I am king, any new road constructed or re-paved will have a bike lane included.  Unrelated to automotive but also under any high-tension wires will be a bike path.

This was not about the 1995 Faith No More album. 

Brett_Murphy (Forum Patrón) said:

1. Cars with only two doors are not allowed to have back seats. 

I've only owned 2 door cars my whole life. Mostly hatchbacks. This decree hurts me. 

No special bolt and screw heads allowed

Right to repair now means completely available schematics and code and parts forever

BMW can't make the X series anymore. None of them. All remaining are crushed.

Tires are halved in price so people can buy decent ones every time.

Rust is covered by all warranties

Harmonize headlight standards across the globe (finally!)

In reply to frenchyd :

I can pull an engine on a 2nd gen F-body without removing the hood.

ShawnG said:

In reply to frenchyd :

I can pull an engine on a 2nd gen F-body without removing the hood.

I've done it on a third gen without pulling the hood.

Without any sort of hoist.

I'm onboard with trucks being smaller.

Ffs take a decent 70s 3/4ton truck and put it next to a new 3/4 truck. It's about twice the size and the truck bed is about as high as the cab roof on the 70s truck

Worldwide all vehicles shall be standardized to left hand drive.    Sorry England, Japan, and Australia, you knew this was coming and should have prepared for it.

All electrical connections shall be standardized and come apart without sacrificing a chicken to Jobu and jambing a screwdriver blade under your thumbnail.  Simplify the electrical!!

Interstates shall have speed "suggestions" but not limits.  Drivers shall learn to drive safely so passing at a reasonable speed and then accelerating back up to high velocity travel becomes commonplace.  Drive like an ass (100 in the rain, weaving, passing at a differential of 80, etc) earns tickets.  Not simply trundling along at 65 in a 55 and the cop needs the revenue.

secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:

I would impose a momentum limit instead of a speed limit.  Momentum = mass * velocity^2.  Suburbans must go much slower than Camrys which in turn are much slower than X1/9s, Alfas, Miatas, etc....and thus must stay in the slow lane.

Also, I would allow properly qualified individuals to have vaporizer guns installed on their vehicles to eliminate Morans on public roadways with no repercussions such as jailtime or lawsuits...

Momentum = mass x velocity

Energy =1/2 *  mass x velocity^2   

Fastener heads may only be hex or Allen keyed. Any fastener in an area prone to collecting water must be stainless steel or other corrosion proof material.

All design engineers shall be required to perform basic maintenance on a vehicle prototype before it is released. This includes removing and replacing the oil filter with the exhaust hot.

Installing self driving features that turn out to have a fatal error in a non-metaphorical sense, such as the Tesla that hit a parked fire truck on the freeway, shall be a capital offense.

If it is necessary to use a code to connect a replacement part to a vehicle, the factory shall provide this free of charge, and allow entering it with the vehicle's controls or with a USB cable using a free phone or computer app. Ownership verification is allowed in the case this is needed for theft protection.

Repair components shall be made available for a minimum of 30 years. If components required for emissions compliance become unavailable, the entire vehicle becomes emissions exempt.

I dont understand the no drive by wire thing. Its what has allowed all these 600-1400hp cars. Remember when 200hp 911s were "widowmakers"? It kind of makes swaps harder but that is about the only downside, and many popular swaps have kits for dbw swaps now. What's the concern? (To clarify, by dbw, I mean throttle by wire). 

Carbon (Forum Supporter) said:

I dont understand the no drive by wire thing. Its what has allowed all these 600-1400hp cars. Remember when 200hp 911s were "widowmakers"? It kind of makes swaps harder but that is about the only downside, and many popular swaps have kits for dbw swaps now. What's the concern?

Drive by wire covers a lot of things, such as steering.  That I don't agree with, but throttle by wire is fine by me.

tuna55 said:

Right to repair now means completely available schematics and code and parts forever

Oh yeah I meant to comment on this earlier.

Manufacturers shall produce repair parts at a reasonable price for a minimum of x years.  In the event that they are unable to do so for some reason,  all CAD, supplier, IP, rights to that part, etc. are immediately made public  If more than 5% of parts on the vehicle reach this point, the entire design package becomes public/open source.

In reply to Carbon (Forum Supporter) :

I thought that way too, having only driven old crappy DBW cars. The first BMW M54 I drove sucked. Sluggish throttle response to foot input. Driving newer DBW cars though and that's gone. Modern Mustangs for example have lovely DBW software.

Pickup trucks with 'antlers' are required to automatically fold to the body when parked. 

maj75 (Forum Supporter) said:

No electric vehicles.

No self driving vehicles.

Death Penalty for driving the speed limit or less in the left lane.

Any truck larger than the standard pickup must stay in the far right lane, no exceptions.

Every other vehicle must stay in the right lane unless the road has 3 lanes or more, in which case they can not travel in the 3rd lane unless actively passing.

Bad drivers, rude driver's, road rage drivers, drivers passing vehicles waiting at an exit and then trying to cut into line at the last second: summary execution on the side of the road and left there as a warning to others.

Have a nice day.

You can't be a real car guy and not love Electric cars .  
First I'm the one who wants to bring back hand cranking as an optional means of starting because starters fail and batteries go dead. 
 

But I realize that more electrics means less gas used. Lower demand equals lower gas prices. 
Besides a lot of drivers are terrible. I'd much rather most people used the robot than try to remember who has the right of way in this situation. 

oh this will be fun:

-no more center mounted shifters on automatic grocery getters. All shifters can go to dash mounted toggles, knobs, and column shifters. Give us extra cup holders and fast food bag holders in their place.

-Stretch minivan bodies to the same footprint as full sized pickups but keep them unibody. Give me backseats that fold into a bed so I can sleep in it down by the river. 

-no more turbo v6's. all turbo v6's will be replaced with turbo v8's. 

-bring back the overhang. Hot hatches will have the same rear overhang as their sedan counterpart. 

-everyone who complained about dieselgate (oh the horror) immediately gets a 50% throttle restrictor installed on their vehicle and forced to buy DEF at $500 a jug. 

-All pickup truck manufacturers offering silly offroad packages must include a clip of their tarted up trucks completing a motorcross jump and footage of airbags going off, frame bent in half, and a disclaimer this is what happens if you think your rebel/raptor is a trophy truck.

Standardized light assemblies. No more "one year only" special aero shaped taillights that get changed next year just to make people think there's been some sort of progress. When all vehicles use one of, say, a dozen designs we get lower costs to certify, lower costs to replace, less expensive design and easier parts supply. The loss of the 7" round headlight and all those common lights used in 60's British and Italian cars was a big step back.

I own about a dozen cars. Something like 9 of them use the same headlight and can be easily upgraded if desired. One of them has headlights that cost $1000 per side to replace, and it's 18 years old.

If y'all can make 800hp emissions legal, big blocks for all! And not that bastardized GM 8.1 or Ford 7.3 horse crap...

No motorcycle is allowed to split lanes on any public highway anywhere, ever.

No semi is allowed to pass another semi unless the passing semi is moving at least 15mph faster than the passed semi. 

Ball joints, tie rod ends, and other such suspension bits will include accessible Zerk fittings.