This started to become a problem in the early 1990s. A friend of mine had trouble with his Honda that turned out to be a faulty but expensive microchip that needed replacing.
Gone are the days when you could go to a local junk yard and pick up cheap replacement parts and install them yourself.
Or are they? Maybe a new generation of auto mechanics will have the electronics expertise to repair newer vehicles.
* Popular, otherwise reliable commodity vehicles produced in massive numbers.
* Other enthusiast performance vehicles. Typical sports cars, muscle cars and sporty coupes.
* Most everything else.
* Vehicles unsuccessful in the marketplace.
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Porsches and Ferrari sports cars are in "high enough" volume amongst well to do owners, that they'll always get taken care of. That's a market that'll always pay up.
Crossovers sold to the tune of 3-5 million vehicles (in just the US!) per model generation, full size US pickup trucks, Japanese compact economy cars, etc. As long as the repair is cost effective, it will be done. Especially when a lot of modern vehicles can go past 20 years no problem if you take care of them (including garaging). It's a huge market to serve.
Then you have the bread and butter enthusiast stuff, produced in larger numbers. Mustangs. MX-5s. Toyobaru twins. Etc. These are people who have a stronger attachment to their vehicle than a normal conveyance. They're more inclined to pay more if required.
Then most other things. Simply a function of repair cost relative to market value.
Then market failures. Almost no one is going to go out of their way to save the equivalent of a Plymouth Breeze or a Daewoo Lanos.
Cars don't have to be as complicated and expensive as they are now, especially with electric cars becoming ubiquitous. You don't -need- tesla level electronics and extra grafted on garbage. You need a vehicle that will get you from A to B. I believe that some company will come along (probably Chinese or Indian) that will grok this idea and come up with something that we can fix and they can sell for a profit. Battery tech will only get better and cheaper. I think we can do this :) . The ICE age is coming to an end, but that doesn't mean DIY has to.
I dream of a day when i can build my car much like i build my pc. Upgrade the motor over time, add better steering, maybe upgrade the seats, transfer everything to a new chassis and so on. With electrics this should be doable.
Yep I had similar thoughts. Electric motors are ridiculously efficient and well known, as is the software to control them. I don't need my car phoning home or constantly downloading stuff. I just want it to, at a reasonable speed, get me from A to B and have a pretty good range (say 200 miles). I don't need all the overly complicated stuff they add today. I don't need seat warmers or AI driving or a ton of cameras and sensor all over (although rear and blind spot heads up would be nice but unncessary. I need AC/heat/cruise as far as amenities. Not much else. Teslas and similar are far too complicated with too many unnecessary bits that make them cost $50k+ instead of 20-25k
This not only means cheaper sketchier parts can work, but it also means there can be less hardware (like a single wire replacing a whole wiring harness). A solenoid or motor can replace a vacuum or mechanical actuator.
and in many cases it drives the chip age - stuff can be small or microscopic and still function.
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[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 26.6 ms ] threadGone are the days when you could go to a local junk yard and pick up cheap replacement parts and install them yourself.
Or are they? Maybe a new generation of auto mechanics will have the electronics expertise to repair newer vehicles.
* High-end enthusiast performance vehicles. Think Porsche sports cars, Ferrari, etc.
* Popular, otherwise reliable commodity vehicles produced in massive numbers.
* Other enthusiast performance vehicles. Typical sports cars, muscle cars and sporty coupes.
* Most everything else.
* Vehicles unsuccessful in the marketplace.
-- ----- -----
Porsches and Ferrari sports cars are in "high enough" volume amongst well to do owners, that they'll always get taken care of. That's a market that'll always pay up.
Crossovers sold to the tune of 3-5 million vehicles (in just the US!) per model generation, full size US pickup trucks, Japanese compact economy cars, etc. As long as the repair is cost effective, it will be done. Especially when a lot of modern vehicles can go past 20 years no problem if you take care of them (including garaging). It's a huge market to serve.
Then you have the bread and butter enthusiast stuff, produced in larger numbers. Mustangs. MX-5s. Toyobaru twins. Etc. These are people who have a stronger attachment to their vehicle than a normal conveyance. They're more inclined to pay more if required.
Then most other things. Simply a function of repair cost relative to market value.
Then market failures. Almost no one is going to go out of their way to save the equivalent of a Plymouth Breeze or a Daewoo Lanos.
This not only means cheaper sketchier parts can work, but it also means there can be less hardware (like a single wire replacing a whole wiring harness). A solenoid or motor can replace a vacuum or mechanical actuator.
and in many cases it drives the chip age - stuff can be small or microscopic and still function.