I’m getting annoyed at hearing this “they made them better in the old days” trope.
Modern cars are pushing 200-300,000 miles of life. They don’t rust like they used to, and complex, efficient engines can be diagnosed with a read from a computer screen, as can the entire car electric system. Sure, older vehicles had more room to do repairs, but they always needed repairs. Lots of rose colored glasses being worn here.
Vehicles like giga cast Teslas are almost like hot wheels cars, one large casting of aluminum, which is often too expensive to fix so the car gets written off. Rivian and Tesla didn’t give a shit about collision repair…until sales are being choked when people get insurance quotes. Tesla setup their own insurance and it’s losing money. Poor design means Teslas crash more than any other brands, and get written off more than any other brand, which sets actuarial tables on fire.
Now Rivian CEO cares because bad design is affecting sales.
I will take modern rust prevention tech every day all day. The control modules and circuit boards are a hole in repairablity, and there’ll be a wall where nobody makes them anymore and the specs are not published (considered proprietary/trade secret/whatever), and that whole vehicle will just have to be scrapped. The world won’t ever see the end of old body-on-frame vehicles with crate engines. Speaking for myself the “rose colored glasses” is a wish for the best of both worlds. I wouldn’t doubt it’s out there being done somewhere, but I’m sure it’s cost prohibitive to do it, or people are doing it for themselves.
Maybe I’m just complaining because I don’t personally have the time/knowledge/workspace to do what I want in that area. C’est la vie.
I’m getting annoyed at hearing this “they made them better in the old days” trope.
Modern cars are pushing 200-300,000 miles of life. They don’t rust like they used to, and complex, efficient engines can be diagnosed with a read from a computer screen, as can the entire car electric system. Sure, older vehicles had more room to do repairs, but they always needed repairs. Lots of rose colored glasses being worn here.
Vehicles like giga cast Teslas are almost like hot wheels cars, one large casting of aluminum, which is often too expensive to fix so the car gets written off. Rivian and Tesla didn’t give a shit about collision repair…until sales are being choked when people get insurance quotes. Tesla setup their own insurance and it’s losing money. Poor design means Teslas crash more than any other brands, and get written off more than any other brand, which sets actuarial tables on fire.
Now Rivian CEO cares because bad design is affecting sales.
I will take modern rust prevention tech every day all day. The control modules and circuit boards are a hole in repairablity, and there’ll be a wall where nobody makes them anymore and the specs are not published (considered proprietary/trade secret/whatever), and that whole vehicle will just have to be scrapped. The world won’t ever see the end of old body-on-frame vehicles with crate engines. Speaking for myself the “rose colored glasses” is a wish for the best of both worlds. I wouldn’t doubt it’s out there being done somewhere, but I’m sure it’s cost prohibitive to do it, or people are doing it for themselves.
Maybe I’m just complaining because I don’t personally have the time/knowledge/workspace to do what I want in that area. C’est la vie.
Yeah, I’d agree engineering and material quality is up, but the problem is that enshittification is up at a higher amount.