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Do you see mud flaps on new cars, or any car, any more? I remember putting a new set on as soon as I got a car. On new cars, they used to come molded in the bodywork but I don't remember seeing them anymore. I have bad memories of installing them. I either had to drill holes or use those horrible clamps that would never stay put.
If I were to guess, it has to do with aerodynamics. Deleting the mud flaps might be worth 0.5-1mpg at highway speeds. Cars are all converging on one shape, which is roughly that of an airfoil, and airfoils don't have mudflaps.
I am surprised that most pickups no longer come with mudflaps. Cars, suv's, and cuv's I can understand but pickup trucks? By the way, most vehicles you can get them installed when you buy but they are not standard anymore.
There isn't any mud anymore. The first time I was in South Dakota, there was only one north-south route in the state that was paved all the way. Unless you lived fairly close to a big eastern city, you drove quite a lot on unpaved roads, and mud flaps definitely had utility. Without flaps, two cars passing each other on gravel at 50 mph were in a hail of rocks.
As for runnimg boards, the interiors of cars were widened in the '40s, so the space was moved inside the car. The first time the interior floor space was in a well was in the 1950 Hudson, as I recall.
We have them on both trucks and were original. Since we go off-road frequently, they come in handy unless it is that gumbo you encounter in Utah, Nevada or Eastern Oregon. It is like cement once hardened.
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