On Thu, 26 Feb 2015 09:48:51 -0600, dpb wrote:

On 02/26/2015 9:13 AM, John McCoy wrote:
...

The plastic part isn't to save weight, it's to save cost.
The cost to form a metal part is 10x that of a plastic
part, if not more.

Much of it is both...the imposition of the fleet average requirements
was the beginning of a massive upswing in plastics/composites/etc. for
the weight reduction.

Exactly. Ford didn't put an aluminum hood on my wife's car to save
money and the aluminum F150 isn't a cost reduction either. I work in
the automotive electronics industry. Even the electronics is under
pressure to save weight. Grams count.