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Astounding to read the Consumer Reports article and find out some manufacturers were still selling new cars with 3G technology as late as 2020 and 2021. What the heck!?
Automobile manufacturers can source the 3G cell parts for pennies. 4 G parts costs dollars.
Mine is even older, a 1st or 2nd generation Forester. When I bought my Subaru, I wanted a car I could still be driving 10 years later.....well, 20 years later and still going strong.
This thing about cruise control has be wondering if that has vastly "improved" or do you just set it with a push of a button when you reach the desired speed?
Back up cameras have me wondering. Right now with the Forester, each week, I drive out with the trash dumpster stuffed in the back and the rear hatch up and open. So where would the backup camera go, if there was one? Would it let me drive with the hatch open?
The F-250 is younger but still, I think everything on it is local. Keyless entry with a key pad on the door. RF key. Radio of AM-FM with a CD player.
I do still have my Motorola flip phone, sitting in the desk, that line awaiting its next mission. I suppose its final usefulness is about to be useless so I might want to upgrade it to a smart phone.....to sit around, waiting its next mission.
You mean like the Batmobile?
Yes you can drive with the hatch open. The camera points to the sky in that case.
The camera only comes on when car is shifted into Reverse.
Nearly all cars sold since the late 1980's are fuel injected and have some sort of computer to control the engine. Of course, nowadays there are a number of different computers in cars doing all sorts of things.
I think 1981 was last year for new non-computer cars. Some new cars with carburetors to like 1991 or 1992, but they were computer controlled carburetors. For all intents and purposes, carbs disappeared by mid 80s and car companies went to throttle body injection, which if you were using computer anyway was simpler and more efficient in both cost and function. Tuned properly non-computer traditional carb could get good gas mileage. But they were an anolog compromise, you start trying to make them also do super low emissions (as determined by EPA)) and then you lose fuel mileage. (Nobody has ever explained to me how burning more fuel to do the same work somehow pollutes less???) But EPA set the percentages of certain pollutants in exhaust stream, not TOTAL POLLUTION EXPELLED. Seriously, you burn more fuel to do same amount work, you create more TOTAL pollution, simple as that.
My 89 came with computer controlled Hitachi carb with the bushel basket of black spaghetti (vacuum tubing) surrounding it. Can we say COMPLICATED?, fuel injection has nothing on this mess. When it stopped working and new ones impossible to find, least for less than I paid for the car, I made an adapter and installed an aftermarket all mechanical Weber carb I had saved from an old VW I had in 70s. Same gas mileage. Think I rebuilt it once maybe ten years ago. Those old Weber carbs were pretty impressive in their efficiency (some called them the poor mans fuel injection), it was getting them dialed in that first time that took some effort. I got away with it cause for whatever reason the distributor in my car still had vacuum advance. Yes came that way from factory. Most computer cars, the ignition advance was controlled by the computer.
For those asking... cellular service in a car is only used for things like:
1 - Updating software (getting you the newest maps, firmware, etc.)
2 - Providing location services and communications with things like SOS and OnStar
3 - Any "internet-connected" features, such as on-board wifi, or streaming services.
- Your on-board GPS (if you have one) will still work. It just won't get newer maps.
- Your Sirius / XM radio will still work (if you are subscribed to it).
- Your car will still run and drive, and everything will continue to function as it has previously, except for what I mentioned above.
For those asking... cellular service in a car is only used for things like:
1 - Updating software (getting you the newest maps, firmware, etc.)
2 - Providing location services and communications with things like SOS and OnStar
3 - Any "internet-connected" features, such as on-board wifi, or streaming services.
- Your on-board GPS (if you have one) will still work. It just won't get newer maps.
- Your Sirius / XM radio will still work (if you are subscribed to it).
- Your car will still run and drive, and everything will continue to function as it has previously, except for what I mentioned above.
The major manufacturers have been making engines and building cars for how long now? I get needing to update maps for navigation, as streets do change and new ones are built. But firmware upgrades for the engine and other things? What, you sold me a car you haven't fully tested?
The major manufacturers have been making engines and building cars for how long now? I get needing to update maps for navigation, as streets do change and new ones are built. But firmware upgrades for the engine and other things? What, you sold me a car you haven't fully tested?
No matter how much testing you do, at some point, someone will do something so far off the wall that no one ever thought to test it. Or, let's say they allow different oxygenate than ethanol. That might require reprogramming. There are any number of reasons the engine, transmission, etc programming might need to change.
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