• Prethoryn Overmind
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    102 years ago

    “They don’t make them like they used to.”

    Yeah dad, you are right. You are far less likely to die.

    • @[email protected]
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      132 years ago

      Fatal crashes have actually gone up in recent years. Likely due to an uptick in SUVs and pick up trucks with their huge blind spots

      There are less crashes now overall but they are far more deadly.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        Its under 5 falaties per 100K in most of europe. Norway at 2. Monaco at 0 (but foes that count?)

        Russia is at 11.

        Usa is at 13.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 years ago

      Really not true about diesels. DPF is a common problem but didn’t even exist in early diesels. Mechanics hate DPFs. Maybe true about petrols.

      But EV are better still (if you can have a home charger) and weren’t really a thing in the 80s/90s. Bar milk floats.

      • JokeDeity
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        32 years ago

        I’m not a car guy and I really can’t even tell if you responded to the right comment or if it just makes so little sense to me I wouldn’t know either way.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          I’m not a car guy, but I am the son of one and have plenty of gear head friends. DPF is Diesel Particulate Filter. It basically catches all the soot and then, when it’s full enough, and the DPF is hot enough, there is a fuel injector that injects fuel and burns it all out. That’s called a regen. When see white smoke, that’s probably what you are seeing. If the DPF gets clogged, the engine won’t start as it can’t exaughst. So being able to regen is important. To get up to temperature to regen, the diesel needs to be run hard for about 10-15 minutes. Which it will get on a decent speed trip. DPFs came in to make diesels less dirty. Though you can argue it’s moving the problem as much as reducing it. It’s illegal but common, to bypass DPFs when it starts being an issue.

          I know all this because it was the DPF that killed my last diesel.

          Very widely held view that diesels were more reliable without DPFs. That they aren’t good for the mileage they were pre-DPFs. Of course they were also even dirtier.

        • GreenM
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          2 years ago

          Because people are so numbed by all of these things, that masses are just silently accepting all of what these companies throw at them.
          Consumers have to wake up from this lethargy and start to support honest business or it will be too late.

  • @[email protected]
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    52 years ago

    This was at it’s peak in the nineties, with the gentlemens agreement between the Japanese automakers. I suspect some vehicles had their power underrated by 50KW or so.

  • @[email protected]
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    1002 years ago

    The fact they can legally charge a subscription for a fitted feature that does not pose any continuous cost for the company is insane

    • @[email protected]
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      62 years ago

      The fact they can legally charge a subscription for a fitted feature that does not pose any continuous cost for the company is insane

      It’s called “Rent-Seeking Behavior” and it has infected essentially every single fucking millimeter of the market.

      You’ll own nothing and you’ll fucking like it.

    • @[email protected]
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      62 years ago

      Flip it to instead focus on them forcing limited lifespans for the cars by doing this and then dropping support.

      • @[email protected]
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        172 years ago

        Next we’re going to get a subscription fee to unlock the full potential of our phone batteries. But if we don’t pay, at least we’ll have 50% of the battery 🤮

        • greenskye
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          82 years ago

          Look, just go buy a different phone if you don’t like it. Doing it this way subsidizes the price for those that don’t need the extra battery size. Plus studies have shown it’s actually good for the battery!

          /s in case that wasn’t obvious

          • @[email protected]
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            22 years ago

            Every company is doing it. Old batteries throttle so they don’t just cut out on you. I wish people would actually learn about how this stuff works before APPLE BADing, but hey. I can’t expect that much from the internet.

        • @[email protected]
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          52 years ago

          If there was even a chance a boycott would be feasible, they wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing. The only way to force change is to force it. Voting with your wallet is bullshit and won’t work against an oligopoly.

  • @[email protected]
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    52 years ago

    Is making cars like 10x times as expensive as it was in 2005? Games justify greed mongering technique like that by their companies claiming they take much more money to make than they did in 2005 when the switch to $60 dollar big budget games happened.

  • @[email protected]
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    162 years ago

    I’ve wondered about how feasible it is to bypass all of these artificial locks these car companies put on their “services”

    • Queen HawlSera
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      82 years ago

      I hear it’s pretty easy

      Do not take my word for it. I’m not a mechanic. Fuck I don’t even have custom firmware on my Prius

    • Cethin
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      122 years ago

      If you want to maintain the warranty, that’s where you’re going to be screwed. If you’re buying used, who gives a fuck. Root the car and turn everything on. The car manufacturer cares about the first sale and that’s it. They’ll attempt to make it hard to root to prevent resales with more features enabled, but we’re going to do it anyway. A lot of people are pessimistic about the future of cars (which is fare for new cars), but personally I don’t care. Fuck the companies. There’s a way to control all their devices whether they like it or not.

      • @[email protected]
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        82 years ago

        Isn’t DMCA 1201 the problem here? It’s the same law John Deere beats hackers, crackers and tinkerers over the head with. They put a token, flimsy digital lock on their equipment so any replacement must be blessed and ordained by JD itself to work. If you defeat that lock, or tell someone else how to defeat that lock, you’re on the hook for fucking prison time or 500.000 bucks on your first offense. I agree with the spirit of your comment, when I purchase a thing the manufacturer can go fuck itself. But right now governments around the world (other countries have their equivalents based on the WIPO internet treaties) put all their legal weight behind this business model.

  • sebinspace
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    132 years ago

    That time when Toyota overbuilt the shit out of an in-line six with way less power than it could handle as part of a gentleman’s agreement to avoid government intervention and ended up being an absolute fucking monster.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 years ago

      “Oh, but the stock supra had no power. It’s not fair to compare it to .” That was the point you nitwits, it was supposed to be modded.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 years ago

      Vwagy group cars are still being made this way. Audi engine, Lamborghini transmission, etc. The internal components are just shared between productions to cut costs, while they tweak the timings in the computer to match the customer expectations.

      They got their hand slapped by the EPA for the TDI emissions line, but the cars are basically performance vehicles detuned. You can supe a modern jetta or golf up for under 3k, 90% of it is just changing the intake and exhaust manifolds while changing shift timings. The Jetta models actually improve fuel economy with an APR tune.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        Yeah the EPA TDI bullshit is what I was talking about. It blows my mind to meet EPA “Standards” they had to make the engine perform worse and be less fuel efficient.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          How does that blow your mind?

          Capturing emissions and recirculating them back through the engine to reburn them is inherently less efficient for power. It reduces the amount of emissions at the tailpipe at the expense of power and longevity. The EPA doesn’t give a shit about how much power your car makes, they care about the sulphur and NOx emissions from diesel engines making it into the air.

          You can make a more fuel efficient and powerful diesel that will go for a couple million miles by straight piping it, but the emissions are god awful.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 years ago

            Not the process, the standards. Burning more fuel to “reduce emissions”. then I have to spend a bunch of money “fixing” a brand new vehicle to get the power and fuel efficiency the car was always capable of in the beginning.

    • monsterpiece42
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      12 years ago

      Can you elaborate? I’m not familiar with the connection you’re referring to.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        Thier TDI desiels were programmed to have a “emission testing” mode which meets EPA standards, and then a “normal drive” mode which was more powerful and more fuel efficient, but didn’t meet standards. They got caught and had to recall and buy back every car that had this feature.

        • monsterpiece42
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          12 years ago

          For sure, I’m familiar with that. You said it pussy whipped the industry. I don’t understand how they’re connected.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 years ago

            The post is about lying about performance, and how no one does it anymore. VW was the last big lie before they got slapped so hard no one does it anymore.

            • monsterpiece42
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              22 years ago

              Gotcha. I’d usually call that “honest” rather than “pussy whipped” so I think that’s what my disconnect was.

    • @[email protected]
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      152 years ago

      As someone who also rode in cars in the 80s, I call BS. Cars today are superior in a lot of ways like fuel economy, crash safety, and probably reliability.

      But cars in the 80s didn’t spy on you. Cars today do. That’s not superior.

      Cars in the 80s were easier to work on. Cars today can require absurd things like dismounting the motor just to get to the spark plugs. That’s not superior.

      Cars in the 80s had physical knobs and switches to control everything from turn signals, windshield wipers, defogger, radio volume, you name it. Cars today frequently have some or all of these features buried in a submenu on a touchscreen. Muscle memory? Forget it!

      That’s not superior.

  • @[email protected]
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    212 years ago

    BMW cancelled plans for this heated seats subscription based on memes like this. Keep up the good work!

    • @[email protected]
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      82 years ago

      BMW didn’t give a single fuck about some autistic teenagers online making memes. They cared about actual customers not buying BMWs over it.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 years ago

          Highly doubtful. The people actually in the market for a bmw aren’t spending their time looking at memes.

      • HotLine
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        52 years ago

        But teenagers will eventually become potential customers so it should matter.

        And maybe the memes can help spread messages. I mean i get ads from companies in meme format so it must have some effect.

  • unfnknblvbl
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    122 years ago

    It took me far too long to realise that this was a meme and not a link to a news article…

  • IninewCrow
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    352 years ago

    Car in the 90s: … door doesn’t close securely anymore … the windshield is cracked … the brakes don’t work sometimes … the transmission is slipping … the engine is misfiring … the alternator doesn’t work anymore … the coolant is way below the add mark … steering fluid is almost empty … you have no more headlights … the rear trunk door has fallen off … CAR IS STILL DRIVEABLE

    Car in 2020s: … The car is all in one piece (it may even be brand new) … one random system trouble light … alarm goes off at regular intervals to annoy you to the point of taking it to a mechanic.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 years ago

      Oh man, I forgot about the doors that don’t close properly. You knew it was going to be a fun ride when you got in one with a bungee cord holding it shut.

      • IninewCrow
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        22 years ago

        Lol … I grew up for a few years on a native reserve in northern Ontario … I remember driving around in trucks without doors

        On one drive with my friends as young teens … I was 13 going on joy ride … as we tore through town, the front hood flipped open and onto the windshield … while we going fast on a narrow gravel roadway … it’s one of those moments where you go from sheer joy to absolute terror in a heart beat.

        I’ve been in a lot of shitty vehicles in my life and we learned how to make things work … as long as it had pistons and a carburetor, we could get it to run.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 years ago

      Windshield wiper fluid low is so obtrusive. It warms you next to the odometer as a message pop-up instead of a light, other things have lights, why doesn’t it? Know what’s worse? It also pops up multiple times on the dashboard touch screen blocking you from seeing your navigation while driving. At least I know I’m low on wiper fluid!

      • SokathHisEyesOpen
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        2 years ago

        It’s like all of the annoying assholes we knew growing up somehow managed to get into decision making positions at all the major corporations. It’s so common now for designs to be absolutely completely fucking terrible. Constant nagging and annoyances. Fuck off already! I’m living my life, stop trying to live it for me.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          I ended up buying in bulk 6 gallons of wiper fluid. My solution is to always have extra now lol. My last car I’d run on low for a year, this one I filled it twice just this summer!

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        My 2020 Seat Ibiza doesn’t warn me about wiper fluid at all. It just stops working, which can be quite annoying when it’s empty right as I’d really need it

  • Dr. Coomer
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    152 years ago

    Meanwhile hillbillies are learning how to start ford f150s with the button that opens the door.

    • Cethin
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      62 years ago

      These companies just care about the first sale, but I guarantee you there’s going to be a thriving market in the future of rooted cars with all features enabled, and they’re going to be far better than whatever the dipshit buying the new car for 4 times as much gets.