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Technology Makes New Cars Too Expensive to Fix
securitas writes "The CSM's Eric Evarts reports on how technology makes new cars too expensive to repair, which may lead to disposable cars. The increased use of expensive electronics, air bags and advanced, lightweight body materials are causing costs to rise. Add to it the cost of specialized training and equipment (for an aluminum-body repair shop: $200,000) or even the cost of new parts alone (xenon high-intensity-discharge headlights: $3,000 each), not to mention the knowledge base required (over 1 million pages, available only electronically vs. 100 pages 20 years ago) and a labor shortage. From the article: 'Specialist technicians need advanced reading, problem-solving, and basic electronics skills.... The best people to find are those who have worked in the IT [information technology] industry.'"
We've got plenty of resources and landfills with tons of space. These are perfect. I hope they also get less than 1 mile to the gallon, because efficiency sucks! Yeah!
goes faster than your new car, handles better, has a real transmission, and is easy and cheap to work on...
power steering is for pussies.
Before long people will be sending thier cars to India to get them fixed ;-)
And if you thought that was boring you obviously havn't read my Journal ;-)
...Pintos, for example. Problem with them was that they disposed of the owners too...
--- Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
Thank you! Thank you! That would be post 2000! w00t!
Ahhhh so THAT is why the spaceship had an RS232 port.... everything had to be accessible via a Mac to enable proper support.
And I thought it was rubbish....
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Will there be less ride pimping the future? This concerns me, because I think all cars need shoe racks, waterfalls, and Playstation's (Whatever the current version) in the back. You also can't have enough DVD players or speakers in a car.
This author is crazy, its easy to fix a car, just need a roll of duct tape.
Whenever my wife drives my car there's a 10% chance she breaks something. Mirrors are ductaped on, car has long scratches in the bodywork on both sides, bumpers are cracked. Cost of repair is already more than resale cost of car.
The other thing about that mount is that if the truck catches fire and it is hot enough to ignite the magnesium - ouch!
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
I'll try that tomorrow on my way into work. :)
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
...out of wood. And replaced horses with engines. Can't grow one anymore. Gotta buy a whole new one.
Someone please tell my dad this. He's always trying to fix cars that are a little too complicated for anyone to figure out in a weekend. The cars slowly start to have problems more frequently until, at long last, the car stops running on the highway and I'm 20 miles from claiming my lottery ticket on my way to marrying Britney Spears. You could say I'm bitter.
True story.
Entertainment while you wait for the ambulance to arrive. That's not a bug, it's a feature.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Good Idea.
We'll put an eBook reader in the center of the steering wheel in our next model.
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
Don't tell me, they were popular in Soviet Russia
Table-ized A.I.
Kind of getting to sound like MS's business model huh?
Hmmm.
DVD -- one hand to hold my coffee, one hand to gratify self while watching DVD porn, one hand to hold cell phone, one hand to gesture rudely at other drivers. Hands free to steer: -2
Book -- one hand to hold my coffee, one hand to hold the book, one hand to turn the page, one hand to hold cell phone, one hand to gesture rudely at other drivers. Hands free to steer: -3
Clearly, car DVDs are safer than books.
a person after my own heart. I once had a nissan sentra with 270K miles when the odometer stopped, and I drove it for another year.
Best thing was when I took it to the shop to get the breaks fixed (got a cheap break dude who would do it for $40, so why do it myself). He said "you know you head gasket is leaking oil right? you should get that fixed, but it's like $600-$800. You'll blow the engine and get stranded" (he knew I had a long commute). My response " guess it's time to get that cell phone I've been thinking about.."
DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
But were you scorin with the ladies? Cause that's all a car is, an extension of ones mental Johnson.
Replacement cars are too much of a pain for me. No way I would want to rewire my car with CAT5 every few months. Maybe I'll upgrade to wireless on my next car and go junker. Is the G standard overkill?
If I had something intelligent to say, I would have said it.
DVD -- one hand to hold my coffee, one hand to gratify self while watching DVD porn, one hand to hold cell phone, one hand to gesture rudely at other drivers.
Wow, that's a lot of hands. Zaphod, is that you?
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
Look on the bright side geeks. If you become an auto mechanic, you will always have work and it isn't very likely that it will every be cheaper or practical to ship a car to India to be fixed.
The icomes of most high end mechanics aren't too bad either.
Just ask the Earth Liberation Front...
They found out, in the news, after they lit a Hummer Dealership on fire, that Hummers, ONLY when lit on fire, put out more pollutants then they EVER would through normal usage and eventual PROPER destruction at the end of their lives...
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
"Disadvantages
- no cup-holders
- no airbags
- no cup-holders"
Sheesh, how much do you drink?
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
One of the reasons I studied computers and not 'shop' was because I *HATED* the idea of getting my hands dirty. I just couldn't handle that phobia. Yuk!
Now they are enlisting IT personnel to service AUTOMOBILES??
iiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
The simple fact that there are engineers who worked on such a project is a good indication that engineering profession needs a serious kick in the ass.
A good start would be to require that every engineer, in order to keep their license, should be required to shoot and kill (with as much pain as possible) one MBA per fiscal year. This would have the added side-benefit of making MBA think twice before proposing such schemes.
That's too bad. I was talking to my gf the other day about engagement rings, and how many months of salary you're "supposed" to spend on them. Her comment? "That's like, 3 or 4 cars!" :)
jred
I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
I tried whipping it with a buggy whip, but no, the shop computer still insisted that it needed a new lamda probe. I have stripped a car down to a pile of nuts and bolts and rebuilt it in a different shape, but I do not know what a lamda probe is, nor why I should need one. That makes me sad.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
You've confused the Hummer with a hummer.
Hmm...and I thought it read:
"Technology Makes New Cats Too Expensive to Fix"
Guess it's time for another cup of coffee!
When the world ends, the only things left afterwards will be cockaroaches and the Mopar Slant-6.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
- Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Don't forget...Hostess Twinkies. After all, the cockroaches need something to eat while driving around.
GreyPoopon
--
Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
Americans build Hondas, Mexicans build Chevys, Canadians build some Fords. Looks like AMERICANS are still building the best cars. :)
"Flying" disposable cars! I can't wait! I'm sure they are just around the corner!
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
Absolute bullshit.
I own a Porsche as well as a '69 Dodge Polara.
Granted, driving the Dodge is more like driving a spaceship (set the vector then burn), but Eleanor starts every damn morning, and Helga runs whenever she feels like it.
It takes a Mopar to catch a Mopar. You really can't beat 'Merkin steel designed when we were putting humans on the moon.
Bite my shiny (well, primered) metal ass. And don't even tread on the flight I took in a B17 yesterday. I wish there were more than 4 160 mph ragtops still in the sky; Oh, right. We burned those up saving Europe's ass...
If I have to drive at night on 290 between Houston and Austin, I will wear my Oakleys to keep myself from being blinded. I honestly don't see how these HID lights are DOT industry approved. They are way to bright in my opinion.
The only thing missing on my nightly trips is the song "Sunglasses at Night" by Corey Hart playing in the background.
Life is not for the lazy.