Another Fine Example of Uncle Sam Saving Us From Ourselves. Gotta Love the Protection!
- Thread starter Ponca Dan
- Start date
Eh. Read up on the John Deere tractor repair controversy in Nebraska. It's kind of a parallel issue (manufacturer prevents consumer from repairing the product, making the repair costs exorbitant) and big business fights laws to empower the consumer to fix it. The repair problems described in that article exist in other industries where government doesn't mandate fuel efficiency.
Consumers and shade tree mechanics haven't been able to "fix" contemporary engines, transmissions, etc. for years now.
That's just a hit piece on government regulation. I'm continually surprised how soon we forget the successful environmental protections government has spearheaded. (Ozone and acid rain, for starters) and there were greedheads all along the way that politicized it. Also, Detroit went bananas over seat belt requirements back in the 1970's.
Both of ours are 2010's. We've been planning to run the wheels off them. Not sure if they meet the standards ole dude is talking about
I was trying to take the starter off my grandpas 66 John Deere 40 20 last year and I threw every tool I had at these two bolts on the inside half. I finally call a local John Deere expert and he busts out a two angle wrench with an offset head made specifically for these poorly positioned bolts. 60$ wrench you can only get from John Deere. Mother fvckers.
I wax thinking that this isn't much different than computerizing cars. Back in the 80's, when something was wrong with your car, you could fix it yourself by buying a book at autozone and having the right tools in your garage. Now, you have to hook a car up to a computer and run diagnostics.
Even the corner car repair shop is going the way of the dinosaur.
The manufacturiers will be happy to sell more brand new vehicles that are obsolete after 5-6 years.
Even the corner car repair shop is going the way of the dinosaur.
The manufacturiers will be happy to sell more brand new vehicles that are obsolete after 5-6 years.
We have a GMC Yukon bought almost immediately after 9/11. Have been thinking about trading it in. This article has me rethinking the idea. It's over 250,000 miles and still runs great. Had it in San Antonio about a month ago and three different people (whom I did not know) asked if I wanted to sell it. But I'm conflicted. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Maybe Sys is right after all. Maybe all those wonderful beaucrats with all their wonderful infringements on my liberty are a good thing. What's a person to do?
Maybe move to where you dont have these pesky bureaucrats ruining everything?
Sorry you won't have the freedom to enjoy the acid-free rain and missing ozone layer.
Congrats on that union built chevy making it to 250k with all these government regs. Good car, huh?
Stop, please, Sys, stop! Your arguments are irrefutable. I give up! Thank God those bureaucrats stopped acid rain (the cause - or extent - of which were NEVER in dispute!) - stopped it cold. Same with the hole in the ozone. Mother Earth had never experience that before! Those spray cans threatened her very existence. Thank God for government bureaucrats intruding! We'd all be dead and the earth would be a scalding hellhole otherwise. I will never question the expertise or intentions of a government action again! Your arguments on their behalf are simply overwhelming. Now I'll get in my union built automobile and humbly drive away. One last time, thank you for setting me straight.
I am going to defend the manufacturers (a little bit) here. First consider the advantages of the vertically integrated product. The PC or the smartphone that is delivered as an entire platform - from hardware to software to services. I think the critics all agree that the more integrated the product the more approachable and useful for the general consumer. Think Apple v. Dell - especially if you back up 5 or so years. Compare the iPhone to the general Android market.
My opinion is that to deliver a higher quality end to end experience manufacturers have to some extent sealed what was once open platform for economic and technical reasons.
Man either all regs are good and save the earth, or all regs are bad and are egregious deprivations of liberty. Any middle ground is met with derision. Hard to reason with someone that demands a thesis fit on a bumper sticker.
Your article is plainly a one-sided hit piece and ignores years of manufacturers squeezing consumers with an expensive repair racket. If the guy's thesis is that fuel efficiency standards prevent efficient repairs from being made, you'd think the writer would address the years of the auto industry (and others) playing the very repair racket he's fretting about.
Sorry for real world examples of successful government regulations. You're right.... we should not have fuel efficiency standards?
You don't like what the market is offering, build your own. Of course, as a society we have decided we have some minimum safety standards so you don't put us all at risk. Just make sure you build that into your car.
Better yet, make the car that the market really wants and show us all. Of course we would expect you to comply with the societal values/norms that we have adopted.
When you say "Uncle Sam" or "the Government" aren't you more properly chastising everyone around you? You know the people who elect the people who make policy? If so, just say it. No use to create some artifice. Don't like the EPA? Blame the people who elected Nixon and every POTUS thereafter who supported/expanded the EPA mission.
I can't fact check this guy, but I argue this with people often. I don't want a new car bc there is too much shit on these things that can go wrong. I have an 04 Avalanche, 04 Accord, and '79 Trans Am. I'll never get rid of them.
PS - keeping a car for hundreds of thousands of miles or buying a used car is better for the environment than buying any new car.
PS - keeping a car for hundreds of thousands of miles or buying a used car is better for the environment than buying any new car.
Where is the car that the "market" is offering? Did you read the article? If the buying public wants all the mandated accouterments required by government dictate it will get them without the government dictate. The manufacturers will gladly add the minimum safety standards the public demands because they want to sell their cars. Why do you think the general public is so stupid, so helpless against the manufacturer of a product?
What values/norms has this society adopted of its own free will? A government requirement that people/manufacturers meet or face violence is hardly an adopted value/norm.
Amen! Still driving the 944 I bought in Nov. '85; no air bags, no GPS crap, etc. Have a great mechanic who works only on Porsches which helps a lot!
The Clean Air Act. Per our agreed to and daily affirmed process you were not granted a veto or the ability to opt out. Sorry bro' that's our system...
I totally agree with all of that. I have heard a first hand nightmare of trying to get a new porsche fixed. When there's a computer issue, and it happens, the dealer can't fix it, either -- they have to bring someone in from out of state and as a practical matter it takes a legal threat to get that done.
If you live in rural areas and gotta have transportation, several nice auto makes aren't an option - the dealers are too far to get service.
"....that's our system." No argument from me onthat account. At least I'm still free to bitch about it. Will you defend my right to bitch about it when Donald Trump attempts to shut down bitching about it?
Here's another example of our "system" at work. You OK with the system on this one?https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve...64dc781686f_story.html?utm_term=.b56f4797d8af
I see a YUGE difference between abuses (as you indicate above) and natural consequences. Waste and fraud should be exposed and dealt with via the civil and legal process. Complex closed systems that result from things like the Clean Air Act, well if the price is too high, then lets address the underlying cause - that or admit we are willing to pay the price for the benefit...
I used to build model cars growing up so I guess that glue sniffing stuck with me. I like it!
I agree. From an economic standpoint, we drive a 10 yr old Honda Odyssey with 168,000 and a 2000 Toyota Tundra with 96,000 miles. Years ago I visited with a dealership owner in Wichita. He said he never buys new, he lets another fool pay the depreciation. Environmentally? I couldn't care less, because those preaching that garbage do a lot less for the environment than I do.
New car glue has nothing on that stuff. Your avatar says it all, with the glue thing.
