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While my auto mechanic brother was visiting me recently, who has his own shop, told me of the "horror" stories of trying to repair these new high-tech gadgetry cars. He has to continually renew his certification, take classes, buy more tools every year, to keep up with being able to repair these new cars.
My brother claims that these car makers are making cars that only a dealer can fix, and I hear more average auto mechanics are leaving the field as a result of it.
My brother, true or false, thinks the Government is behind a great deal of it, all designed to make us feel safer, and safer for others.
And to repair some of these cars today, you may end up crying all the way to the bank, and is this necessary? Do we need all these new options on cars?
I can picture these high tech workers at GM, for instance, under pressure to come up with newer and newer gimmicks every year, or lose their jobs?
At what point do we say, enough is enough is enough! No more, no more!
I'm still hanging on to my 1985 Toyota for dear life, as I'm terrified of the idea of buying a new car, and then can't afford to get it fixed. How these lower income workers are able to afford expensive repairs bills is beyond me!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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That's really nothing new, they have always designed for use of special tools, and awkward placement of key parts. Why do you suppose they don't put all oil filters high up inside the fender well where it's easily accessed. Lately it has just gotten much worse with the government required "safety" features, such as air bags, backup cameras, and tire pressure monitoring. More and more manufacturers are adding things like adaptive cruise control, lane centering and collision avoidance, all of which are likely to be required by the government soon. To answer your question, there actually should be less government controls if you want the cost of repairs to go down.
Auto manufacturers aren't making cars for independent garage owners. They're making cars for consumers.
Years ago I took my GM SUV in for the yearly Virginia inspection. I chose a "private garage" that did about half of their business on car inspections. They said they couldn't inspect my car because it required a special wrench to reach something. So they turned away all GM SUVs. So I went to the dealer and they did the inspection. I asked them about it, and they just laughed. The mechanic said, "They could buy the wrench for about $7. Guess they just don't want the business".
If cars were getting more unreliable and needed more maintenance than they used to I could see the point for the argument. Lot's of these tech gadgets are complicated and hard to fix, but if my stereo and HUD back up screen break, the car still runs.
The whole keyless ignition is more driven by eliminating vehicle theft than consumer wows; it appears to be a gimmick but it's actually driven out of practicality.
The least they can do is make it easier to change a headlamp. I'm not surprised to see cars running around without a headlamp today, as it can be very costly just to change a headlamp. I can still change mine for $10 with a Phillips screwdriver.
I don't buy the argument about keyless ignition cars being more theft-proof. I worked with a nurse whose dog chewed up her Fob and, being a Lexus. it cost her $800 to replace it. I can still get copies of my car key for $5.
I'm not exactly sure if the Gov't is really responsible for all these "advances", I believe the "guilt" is split between car manufacturers and the Gov't. And where is it all going to end?
I used to worry about buying parts for my older 1985 Toyota Supra, but I found a mechanic shop here in Tucson who told me they'll always find parts for it and they said they'd keep my car on the road for the next 20 years.
There's an entrepreneur, who's now become a billionaire, featured in Fortune magazine, who's capitalizing on those who are averse to buying a new car and he's been combing junkyards around the country and bringing old cars back to life for resale.
The least they can do is make it easier to change a headlamp. I'm not surprised to see cars running around without a headlamp today, as it can be very costly just to change a headlamp. I can still change mine for $10 with a Phillips screwdriver.
I don't buy the argument about keyless ignition cars being more theft-proof. I worked with a nurse whose dog chewed up her Fob and, being a Lexus. it cost her $800 to replace it. I can still get copies of my car key for $5.
I'm not exactly sure if the Gov't is really responsible for all these "advances", I believe the "guilt" is split between car manufacturers and the Gov't. And where is it all going to end?
I used to worry about buying parts for my older 1985 Toyota Supra, but I found a mechanic shop here in Tucson who told me they'll always find parts for it and they said they'd keep my car on the road for the next 20 years.
There's an entrepreneur, who's now become a billionaire, featured in Fortune magazine, who's capitalizing on those who are averse to buying a new car and he's been combing junkyards around the country and bringing old cars back to life for resale.
I don't know how old you are, but I'm ancient. Back in the late 1960s and 1970s, I remember often having headlights that had to be replaced. I haven't had that happen now in over 25 years.
Nowadays most cars can run way beyond their warranty without any problems. The key is timely maintenance. Lots of people don't want to spend money on maintenance and periodical checkups. Small problems that are cheap to fix but ignored grow into big, costly repairs.
I am still very surprised by the amount of cars that are abandoned on the highways shoulders. Many are fairly recent, japanese models. You don't see it anywhere in Europe.
Cars with gadgets sell well. People want to have max amount of gadgets in their cars. It seems to be something to boast about. Most don't think that electronics are often the first things that break and repairs/replacements are costly.
Here is an older but interesting article. I didn't follow up with it but I understand the concern.
"Automakers are supporting provisions in copyright law that could prohibit home mechanics and car enthusiasts from repairing and modifying their own vehicles. In comments filed with a federal agency that will determine whether tinkering with a car constitutes a copyright violation, OEMs and their main lobbying organization say cars have become too complex and dangerous for consumers and third parties to handle." https://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/20/...s-car-repairs/
People want to save money and go with their (sophisticated and complicated) cars to cheap garages where "skilled at the job" mechanics try to "fix" problems they often don't understand.
It's a big time liability issue. Cars fixed by clueless "mechanics" could become unsafe on the roads...
The whole keyless ignition is more driven by eliminating vehicle theft than consumer wows; it appears to be a gimmick but it's actually driven out of practicality.
It depends:
In keyless entry cars, when armed with the scanning and booster devices, thieves can be gone in as little as 10 seconds. (and keyless ignition can be less expensive for the automaker to produce).
The security experts said it takes about 2.5 minutes to steal a car without keyless entry.
However, when the key fobs are inactive or in sleep mode, it was almost impossible to steal the cars.
But there are other cons related to keyless entry/push button start. Keyless-ignition systems pose an overlooked risk because sometimes, the driver fails to switch the car off or doesn't realize it's still running. When that happens inside a garage, the results can turn serious.
As cars become more appliance-like and drivers become less and less engaged with how cars work, the risk of problems like this only becomes more likely.
I would not be surprised if that were true...with self driving cars eventually coming onto the market, those will put auto repair and especially collision repair companies out of business, they could be trying to make all they can in the years they have left, before their industry vanishes.
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