a part? how about online shopping and then printing the item you just bought

Things like this must make insurance companies buttholes pucker with fear. Gone will be the high cost of repairing cars after accidents and poof go their need to charge high premiums and profits.

Whoops this was supposed to go under fatstarr's post.

Lol! But good points actually. I was thinking about it the other day. My dad was telling me about how back in the days, people used to fix car components if something went wrong. Nowadays we just rip out the bad stuff and throw in a new unit entirely. Sounds like a good profit making scheme for the auto companies, but with 3D parts now... anyone can set up shop and print whatever schematics are thrown at them and the whole concept of a car company would no longer exist. The time may come when brands no longer exist either becuase everyone could develop their own dream car, once some kind of basic requirements are met in the safety department, comfort, and what not. Evolution at its best.

There was a time for that indeed. My guess is things were much better back then.

In response to your idea of "When brands no longer exist either becuase everyone could develop their own dream car, once some kind of basic requirements are met in the safety department, comfort, and what not."

I suspect that the governments would do nothing to make it easier for us to be able to do that. Once it begins to become more prevalent, they'll regulate the hell out of it and make it impossibly expensive to do or illegal. Remember when companies who adapted thrived and those who didn't adapt died? Well if memory serves, governments didn't allow for that to happen with the last stock crash (ie:GM and Chrysler - how much $$$ did our governments give them to stay open?)

They would no doubt see this as a threat to these businesses and put a quick stop to the concept.

As an engineering student who has had the opprotunity to work with people who have much experience in the field, I have seen a 3D metal printing machine for prototyping.

Although the machine and materials were expensive as **** and small in scale, the concept is entirely possible.

It's just that the parts still have to be manufactured on different machines or at different (long) times. And the simple truth is that casting the metal is far less time consuming and expensive for mass production. While for prototyping, recasting everytime is closer to the same as printing.

AHAHAH!! Car piracy..Yay just another thing we can all be worried about.

Exactly, there is much to manufacturing than simply cutting around a metal (which wouldn't be cheap anyway).

There's also the matter of programing the circuitry.

except the issue with that is most men will take some...ahem...exceptions and it'd would probably be better for them in the end thereby making said man obsolete.

A lot of prototypes are made with recyclable materials, too, from what we can see...