This is not political … but it is important … and therefore politics.
One comment: “I saw a meme recently that pictured a 70-ish Ford truck. The text said “When this truck came out, the owner’s manual showed you how to adjust the valves. Today, the owner’s manual tells you not to drink the coolant.” Have we as a society really advanced?” – Corey6393
What is the deal?
Well, the elimination of the “3rd tier” car buyers, people who can least afford new, and the businesses who supply them is the deal.
And even regular jobs you or a shade tree can do is way more complicated than it needs to be. Like changing a crank sensor on my girlfriend’s 21 model Atlas. Sensor itself is easy to swap. But then you got to do a relearn procedure with a scan tool. But only the nice expensive ones can make the car go into learn mode. It’s ■■■■■■■ stupid.
Cars peaked in the late 90s and the early 2000s. They got way more reliable and powerful at that time but they were still simple enough to fix yourself or could be worked on by anyone with any level of knowledge. Now they’re just stupid.
Most of my cars are from that time period. My 2018 Civic isn’t terrible to wrench on, but a lot of my friends newer cars I quickly gave up trying to help them with certain problems and repairs. I’m not a professional mechanic. I’m not buying a 600 dollar scan tool just to relearn the dammed camshaft sensor. Why does it need to relearn anyway? They did self-setup back in the late 90s. Just plugged it in and it worked fine. Why did that change?
Thankfully I do work for a major nationwide parts retailer. So the last time I needed one, I just unlocked our safety cage, took one out and took it home and used it and then brought it back in the box.
But it’s still annoying. When the previous method worked just fine.
Even battery changes have gotten dumb on some cars. I just put a battery in my girlfriend’s Volkswagen Atlas the other day and while it wasn’t a hard procedure, they really could have simplified a ton of it with just a few small different decisions. My impression was ■■■■■ like this is why the Germans lost World War II. I bet their tanks and planes were the exact same way.” More complicated than it needed to be.
Battery changes peaked with the Crown Victoria. That’s so easy I could train a gorilla to do it. One 8mm hold down bolt and then bam it comes right out.
The battery in my daughter’s 2004 RAV was like that…they shoved it under some trim by the windshield and the clamp that holds it in place was almost impossible to maneuver.
The water pump on my old Toyota Yaris was the same way…the space between the side panel and the alternator was so narrow, I almost thought about drilling through the side panel and putting a detachable cover instead just so I could easily get to it!
My first ever car was an old Plymouth Reliant that required me to remove the right front wheel in order to access the oil filter (although if I had had a lift, I likely could have reached it from underneath- but removing the wheel was easier).
Oh God. That time GM thought “let’s put a Cadillac crest on this Cavalier and then charge literally double for it.” Which is true. A fully loaded Cavalier in 1985 was about 7 grand. The Cimmaron started at 14 grand.
Which they still do the same thing these days. An Escalade is just a Tahoe with fancier seats after all.
